The left hand of kami
by soulthief2
Summary: Kidnapped at the end of the Wave mission, Naruto endures horrors. when he finally escapes, will he be stable enough to return to society? Narutoxharem naruharem. Yaoi is the scourge of the universe when it is in great qunatities. Weep for the world....
1. Chapter 1

The Left Hand of Kami

By Soulthief2

Chapter 1

This goes for all chapters; I don't own Naruto, I wish I did. I'd be rich. Hmm…

Pairings: NarutoxAlotofgirls (Cuz he's coo like that.) As a side note, I'm still writing my other Naruto story, I'm just a little stuck. The thing is, I also need staff for my C2 'Power and Polygamy' as well as anyone who wants to pre-read my story before I post it. (Is that what a beta is? I'm relatively new to ff, sorry.) if you want to staff or 'beta' post it in your reviews or email me at Thx.

Chapter 1 Illumination 

Naruto glared hatefully at the man that had kicked Haku's corpse. _How dare he?_ Haku had given himself up for his precious person. He was so absorbed in his anger towards the dwarf-like man that he almost missed Zabuza's request for a kunai.

"I'm sorry Zabuza-san, but I need it for my own purposes. Kakashi-sensei, stay where you are and don't interfere." The silver-haired jounin narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Naruto, what are you doing… NARUTO!"

The blonde genin launched himself towards the tiny man and his small army of thugs. Naruto was confident in his abilities, none of the men were shinobi, and so would have little chance against even a genin.

As he charged the group, he inadvertently activated the red chakra again, and his body changed, already turning some of them men into frozen pieces of meat.

Kakashi sighed, he had sincerely hoped that it would have been much later for Naruto's first kill, but it was inevitable now. Not even he wanted to get between Naruto and the thugs. The killing intent emanating from the red chakra hit him just as it had during the boy's fight with Haku, but this time it was different, it wasn't just mindless rage, but more like a righteous rage, directed to killing the man who had disrespected and bad-mouthed Haku.

Zabuza however, had never felt the kyuubi's chakra before, and it scared him pissless. "What _is_ that boy?" He whispered to himself, but Kakashi managed to overhear. "He is Naruto Uzumaki, a ninja who will someday become Hokage."

Sakura looked up from Sasuke's body as she heard her other teammate's warcry, just in time to see the blond begin hacking the thugs apart, red chakra surrounding him like fire. Naruto only occupied her attention for a few seconds before she returned it to Sasuke's still body.

Naruto couldn't be sure what came over him when he charged the army and Gatou. It was like his fight with Haku before. Suddenly his rage and sorrow had been channeled into a feasible energy which powered him more than any food or drink could. His mind was disconnected from his body, observing neutrally as he tore the ragtag group apart. Then movement caught his eye. It was Gatou, trying to escape onto the boat he had arrived on.

Growling fiercely, Naruto ripped an arm out of its owners socket before taking after gatou. He was sure that zabuza and Kkashi could handle the rest.

Gatou was fairly proudof himself with managing to get away while at the same time reducing the number of bodies that needed to be paid. Of course, his victory was short-lived when a feral voice said behind him, "Where do you think you are going, Gatou?"

The man's pulse rate skyrocketed, and he slowly reached beneath his jacket to grasp something. "Why, I'm just going to leave my boy. There's nothing you can do about it, however." "Oh really? I just tore most of your men into little pieces, and they were in far better shape than you. What could you possibly do to me?"

Gatou's eyes flashed as he spun around instantly, at the same time releasing several hypodermic needles. Naruto, stnned by the sudden attack, couldn't dodge them, not when he was so close to Gatou.

The needles entered him in the chest and abdomen, injecting their cargo straight into his system. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the maniacally grinning face of Gatou.

Kakashi sighed as he sliced open the throat of the last thug. Out the hundred that had arrived, Naruto had possibly killed 80 of them, leaving 20 to himself and Zabuza. Of course, that was nothing to two experienced jounin, not even enough to get their heartrate up.

As he let the mercenary hit the floor of the bridge, he heard a slight wheeze behind him. twirling around, he looked for enemies, but found none. Instead, the chest of the boy he had impaled was rising and falling, with slight jerks. Quickly, Kakashi set about healing the boy. Not noticing that his student was gone.

A half hour later, an exhausted Kakashi and Zabuza were sitting on the bridge, staring at the now steadily-breathing Haku. "It's amazing that he survived," Said Kakashi, "No one has ever lived after I used my chidori on them." Zabuza smiled, "Haku was always stronger than me, in so many ways. Of course it took the ramblings of that blond-haired brat for me to figure it out in the end."

Kkashi stiffened. "Naruto! Have you seen him anywhere!" Zabuza narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "No I was too busy trying to help you with Haku." "Sakura?" the pink-haired girl halted in her rejoicing of Sasuke's new life to respond, "Yes, sensei?" "Have you seen Naruto anywhere?" The girl snorted, "How should I know? The idiot probably overestimated himself again and got himself killed. It doesn't matter, he's just a deadlast, he can't compare to Sasuke-kun!" With that, she glomped onto Sasuke, who only growled in anger at his treatment.

Kakashi suppressed his immense urge to slap the girl. It was a mistake letting her and Sasuke pass. So far, Naruto was the only one who showed true caring towards his teammates. Now, Naruto was missing, and possibly dead. He suddenly felt extremely old. His joints ached and he lost the sudden burst of adrenaline he had gotten upon learning of Naruto's disappearance.

A search party was immediately launched, ut no sign of the blond turned up, save for 5 hypodermic needles that had been discarded onto the bridge.


	2. Chapter 2

The left hand of Kami

Chapter 2

**Yay! I got all good reviews for the first chapter! Thank you very much! Gracias! Arigatou! Anyways, I don't have anything to tell you.**

Naruto groaned as he wearily lifted his head, his neck cramping painfully as he did so. blinking away his blurry vision, his sight rested on the shadowed form of a person standing a few meters away. It was also then that he noticed that he was hanging by his arms a few inches off the ground. His shirt and forehead protector had been removed and the areas where he had been stabbed were red and swollen from infection.

"What the hell is going on? Who are you? What am I doing here?" The shdowed form laughed, and began speaking in a voice that naruto chillingly recognized. "what's the matter, little ninja? Can't get free? You and your bastard team ruined my plans and cost me millions of dollars! I really should just kill you right now, but where's the fun in that? I've decided to let you live…barely."

Stepping into the light of the dank cell, Gatou sneered at Naruto. "I'm going to take out of your hide what you cost me in money, brat, and I'm going to enjoy doing it."

With that, he waved two men in, both of them wearing forehead protectors with a slash through them. "These two men will be keeping you company and making sure you don't get too comfortable." Gatou laughed maniacally as he turned around and closed the cell door, leaving Naruto along with the two nuke-nin. The men both bore insane grins as they closed on their prey.

-two weeks later-

Kakashi's heart was heavy. He had lost another teammate, only this one was barely 12, and had yet to even face some of the true joys in the world. Quickly, the whole village turned out as a search-and-rescue party, but, save for the needles, they could find no trace of Naruto or Gatou.

Just as he was saddened by the loss of Naruto, he was also enraged by the seemingly indifferent attitude Sakura had towards the situation. At first, kakashi thought that Sasuke didn't care either, but as the days passed, he saw the uchiha survivor becoming more and more agitated, and more and more cross with Sakura, who kept telling him that Naruto was dead and that he didn't have to worry about him anymore.

Kakashi _so_ wanted to slap her, but that was improper in a teacher-student relationship. He could only watch as the rest of the group, Zabuza, Haku, Tsunami, and Tazuna, all seemed to carry themselves around autonomously.

Zabuza looked worriedly at his student who was peering out the window into the night sky. Over the last few weeks, they had become good friends with the konoha nins, and had even accepted an offer to join the village. However, Haku still seemed depressed about something. Most likely it was the boy that had gone missing.

Despite what the two of them always told everyone, Haku was indeed a girl, she just chose to hide it so as to not be given a handicap in battle. Moving to get a better look at his apprentice's face, zabuza was able to read the emotions of his student. She was sad, with a tiny bit of happiness, and, as her eyes moved to the distant view of the bridge, they filled with a different emotion, love. Zabuza sighed mentally. If the boy had indeed been captured, he would most likely be dead already.

A weeping mass in the form of a boy was centered around a cell, whose slimy, green walls and chipped stone reminded one of a castle dungeon. And, much like a dungeon, this cell was covered in blood, all of it from the boy.

The boy himself was lucky to be alive. Scars criss-crossed his entire torso, remnants from the nuke-nin's treatments. What was worse was that he still had some on the implements stuck in him. a scalpel was stabbed into his leg, while 3 kunai jutted out from his chest and back. On his back, the thin strips of flesh he had left were bleeding sluggishly, as a result of the severe flogging he had just gotten.

Naruto had learned to separate his mind from his body early on in the torture, but that only helped so much. It wasn't until a week ago that he had finally met the fox.

-Flashback-

Naruto let out a bone-chilling scream as the hot iron was pressed against his flesh. Nuke-nin1 laughed. "See how he screams? I love it! Let's do it some more, before he gets used to the pain." More irons seared his skin, just as he blacked out.

_He awoke in a dark room, with water ceovering the floor and piping running through the ceiling. To his left, he heard the sound of heavy breathing. Pushing himself to his feet, he walked towards the sound, wincing as the injuries to his body screamed in protest at his actions._

_The hallway led to a giant room with a large, iron-barred gate in it. Lying on the gate was a piece of paper with the letters 'seal'. Two baleful red eyes glowed from the darkness in the cell._

_Naruto smirked, "So, this must be where the 'Great Kyuubi' is held. Finally, a chance to meet the bastard that as made my life a living hell." The red eyes narrowed for abit before a huge voice resounded throughout the room. **"You're lucky I like you Kit, otherwise I might take that personally." **Naruto blinked, "Huh?"** "I said I like you. You've got spunk. Besides, it's not my fault that the villagers can't tell the difference between a vessel and a real demon. Actually, none of this is my fault. A snake-like man named Orochimaru killed my family, bu lied and said that Konoha did it. Just before I was sealed away into you by your father, I asked Shinigami to bless the souls of those who passed on. As far as I know, they're currently in heaven, watching over their loved ones."** "O-kay. I guess that makes sense. I apologize for my comments earlier." **"Apology accepted, kit. Now, we have to do something about your situation here. The dilemma is this; if you die, I die. I don't want to die, and I really like you, so it's in my best interests to help you. However, I can't do that yet. I need you to do something first. Go up to the paper seal and tear off about the lower quarter. This will allow me to feel what you are feeling, see what you see, taste what you taste, etc. it will also enhance your own senses, as technically we will be sharing the same ones. This will also give the sixth sense all animals have, and will allow me to talk with you without you having to come here all the time."** "That sounds perfectly reasonable, Kyuubi-san. I will do as you asked." With that, he tore off the lower quarter of the seal._

-end flashback-

So, for a week, Naruto's senses had slowly been improving, and he could clearly here when his tormentors would be approaching. As soon as they entered, they each had their necks caught between a pair of legs and snapped easily.

Naruto felt little remorse about his kills. The men were sadists, and deserved to die. With his dirty deed accomplished, Naruto swung himself up vertically and placed his legs against the ceiling and egan to pull with all of his remaining strength. The chains groaned, but nothing more.

But then, red chakra slowly began to leak out of him and around his arms, and the chains pulled from the wall eaily. _Thanks kyubi. **No problem Kit. Now, kill Gatou and get out of here. ** _

Gatou was lounging in a gilded chair sloppily eating a turkey leg when his door was blasted open. "What is the meaning of this?" he raged, throwing the leg down hard.

Then, out of the smoke came Naruto, filty, scarred, and bleeding. He grit his teeth as he pulled a kunai out of his body. There was a brief spurt of blood, before the wound healed up, leaving just a scar. Naruto had learned early on that kyuubi, while usually able to heal most wounds without a scar, was not able to heal his great number of wounds without leaving scars or risk being totally drained of chakra. Naruto stared at the man in front of him, "Hello Gatou. It's nice to see you, after such a long interval between your last visit. Unfortunately, I must take my leave from this place, but I decided to leave the people at Wave village a little present." He flashed forward and less than a second later, Gatou's headless body fell to the floor.

Kakashi, Zabuza, and Haku were about ready to burst into tears, while Sasuke just showed huge disappointment and sadness in his eyes. The villagers, in honor of Naruto, had pooled their money and managed to get a carving of Naruto put in as the centerpiece of the bridge. The statue was winking with a thumbs-up, and held the engraving, 'For the one who showed us that courage and heroes still abound, we name this, the Great Naruto Bridge.' Sakura just rolled her eyes before glomping Sasuke again and asking him out. While he was mourning the death of his comrade and, he realized, friend. His anger grew at the girl, bt he didn't retaliate, as that wasn't what Naruto would have wanted. Instead, he calmly ignored her, but managed to shoot a look to Kakashi and zabuza that said 'This bitch will die if she doesn't get the idea soon enough.'

They were on their way to Konoha already, when Kakashi noticed something strange. Red drops were lying on the ground, next to a discarded kunai. Also, further along the road, there were two more kunai. It loked as is someone had pulled them out of his or her self.

Then he noticed the body. It was still breathing, but the breathing was shallow, and heavily labored. Wary of a possible trap, kakashi inched forward until he could get a better view of the person.

His eye widened instantly. "Haku! Zabuza! Get over here! I need your help!"

Gently, he set Naruto's body along the ground, but it was hard trying to avoid the spots that were still being healed. The boy's body wasin a disgusting state, he looked as if he had been attacked by a madman with a chainsaw.

As Haku and the others ran up to them, Naruto opened one eye halfway and he smiled a little. "Hey…Kakashi-sensei…I got a present for Wave village. I sent them…Gatou's head…but it seems that Gatou and…his cronies did a real number on me. Kyuubi says there's a lot of internal damage he has to heal…so I need to rest…for…a bit…" With that Naruto fell asleep, just as the others arrived. Hku just paled and brought her hands to her mouth, while Zabuza and Kakashi fervently began to heal the boy.

Sasuke sighed a huge sigh of relief, and smiled, glad that his teammate, though broken, was still alive. Sakura just muttered, "Drama queen."

3 dayslater, the whole group arrived at Konoha. Naruto was rushed to the hospital, where he was expected to make a full recovery, save for being heavily scarred. The rest were brought up to th Hokage's office.

Personally, kakashi had never seen the hokage so angry. The man was almost spitting fire. "What the hell happened kakashi! Why is Naruto-kun so injured?"

Kakashi sighed, "my apologies, hokage-sama. We were attacked by some bandits on the bridge, and Naruto, using 'it', managed to kill most of them, after thei leader insulted the young Haku here while she was fatally injured. He then proceeded to go after Gatou, but disappeared for 2 weeks. We only found him 3 days ago. It looks as if he has been tortured. By the man he was gong after, Gatou."

The hokage's eyes narrowed, "I want that man's head on a plate." "I'm sorry sir, but Naruto already beat you to it, though it looks as if he had spent all of his energy doing it. He gave the head to wave country."

The hokage nodded, before turning to Haku and Zabuza. "Since you two helped immensely in the aid of Konoha, I will grant you rights to be Konoha nins. Please go to the registration office down the hall an give them this letter. Everyone, you're dismissed, save you, Kakashi."

After the others filed out of the room, Kakashi brought his full attention to the matter at hand, something which was rare and almost unheard of. "Yes sir?" "What were the reactions of Naruto's teammates when he went missing?" "Well, Sasuke at first didn't seem to care, but after a few days, really began to show that he was worried. Sakura, on the other hand, cared for nothing but Sasuke, and even said that she was glad that Naruto was gone and that he was hopefully dead." At this, Kakashi's fists tightened in his anger, and his voice was strained. "I see. Kakashi, I'm hereby demoting Sakura back to academy student, though she will receive genin pay. When she reached genin level again,she will be on a 6-month probation period, during which if she shows any signs of not working as a team, she will no longer be a ninja. Be sure to inform her of this, would you?" "Gladly." "Then you are dismissed." The hokage then made his towards the hospital, as there was a certain demon vessel he had to meet.


	3. Chapter 3

The left hand of Kami

Chapter 3

Wow! That was an unexpected number of reviews for just one chapter! I feel special now, I think I'll help my self to a bowl of Ramen or five. Anyways, here are the responses to the reviews I decided to answer randomly:

**Korrd- this is a Narutoxharem fic, dude, and of course Haku's going to be in it. That's why I made her a girl.**

**The phantomhokage- In my last fic, I made kyuubi a girl, perhaps I should do a vote on what you guys want, hmm?**

**Shinku Naito- I chose the title 'The left hand of Kami' because from what I have detained from the History channel information given in several subjects, the right hand of god is always the forgiving, while the left hand is the punisher. That's why I decided to make Naruto the left hand of Kami.**

**Patch5129- No, he's not a jounin, he still only has the skills of a genin. It's just that he's become far more mature since he's met kyuubi, and so he is able to utilize the skills he already has with a greater degree of efficiency.**

**Derek the Rogue- Ranting is perfectly fine here, as long as it's not in favor of yaoi. And besides, why do you think my stories so far are all Narutoxharem? Someone's got to balance the scale, plus, there aren't a whole lot of them out there.**

**Meca Vegeta- …………**

**As to all of you who said 'kill Sakura', please be patient. She still has a part to play in this story, though when it's through, she'll be killed. Votes on whether or not it should be horribly gruesome or mildly gory will take place. **

**Oh, and Unknown stranger- So do I. Can you tell me about some of them? I can never find any of them because the search engine always pisses me off. Oh, btw, is it weird to get marriage proposals in a review?XD**

**Now onto the story…**

Sarutobi looked sadly at the scarred and heavily bruised form of Naruto. The scarring wasn't really what caused the hokage's grief, though. From what Kakashi had told him of Naruto's hand healing, Kyuubi's chakra would have had to have been nearly totally depleted for scars to have appeared. The number and type of wounds that demnded that kind of chakra had to have been monstrous…

Suppressing his fury, the hokage patted the unconscious Naruto on the head before exiting the room, his fury now being funneled as energy with which he would eventually finish his paperwork within half an hour.

Meanwhile, Naruto was having a conversation with kyuubi in his head: "So, what do you have planned for me during this time we spend healing?" ever since he had met the Kyuubi, Naruto had begun to refer to the both of them as 'we', seeing as what affected him affected the kyuubi too, especially with a part of the seal missing.

"**Well, I was thinking we should get into heavy training, so what happened to you doesn't happen again. I was thinking taijutsu in the morning, break for lunch, and then poisons and techniques in the afternoon." **

"Poisons? Why would we need poisons?" Said Naruto

"**Well, for one thing, shinobi have an extended history of using poisons to further their missions. Not only that, but I think they're really cool, plus we have to build up your resistance to them."**

"Alright, tht's okay then. How much longer until I'm finished healing?"

"**At this rate, I would say at least another day." **

"Damn, more waiting."

Naruto received few visitors in the hospital, but the few that did come came repeatedly. Hinata, Iruka, the hokage, Ibiki, and Kakashi, were the only ones who bothered to come. When questioned why he had come, Ibiki simply answered, "I find it admirable that he is able to withstand torture for two weeks, escape, kill his captors, and run to you guys, all in the same day. Most would have rested for a while, or simply given up. This boy is a true embodiment of Shinobi spirit."

There were two who had wanted to see Naruto, but were unable to, due to a probation period during which they were not allowed anywhere near the academy, hokage's tower (unless summoned), or the hospital. This made Zabuza sad, but poor Haku was nearly in tears the whole time. The black-haired maiden had only paused long enough in her worry of Naruto to severely abuse Sakura, who had said that Naruto was only looking for attention, and not really hurt.

During the whole abuse thing, Sasuke was smirking, finally the W.W.F.B. (Weak-Wothless-Fangirl-Bitch) was getting what she deserved. Sasuke had never been impressed with the pink-haired girl, and had mostly thought of her as a nuisance at best, a possible target dummy at worst. He had no idea how Naruto had been able to stand it.

Naruto. The boy who had defeated Haku, and over fifty thugs by himself. Sasuke dearly wished to be able to have the kind of power that Naruto had, so that he would be able to kill his brother far quicker, and move onto the second step of his ambition. When the blonde woke, he would ask him about the power he exhibited.

**A day later---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Naruto groaned, slowly opening his eyes. Instantly, he shut them closed again, the glare of the sun on the bleached white of the hospital room hurt his still-sensitive eyes. Yawning, he sat up slowly in the bed, wincing as he stretched muscles that had become lax or damaged during his stay with the two nuke-nins. Carefully, he stood, and walked over to a full-length mirror. The sight that greeted his eyes was less than beautiful. His hair, dirty from not being washed, was murky blond, bordering on brown. He had dark circles under his eyes, and a scar shaped like an 'x' covered his left cheek.

His torso, however, was the worst. Two weeks of barely eating had taken away the baby fat in him, leaving only solid muscle, and even that was beginning to go away from disuse. He had one large scar going from his left hip to his right shoulder, as well as several more minor scars, including ones that ran up and down his arms. (Think Gene Starwind from Outlaw Star.) he was unable to see his legs due to the hospital pajamas he was wearing, but he knew he was scarred there too.

He sighed deeply. In less than a month, he had killed fellow humans, gotten tortured, and then become disfigured for the rest of his life. It wasn't long before his normal cheerfulness returned to him, though, and, after pulling on a shirt, made his way to the main entrance of the hospital to let himself out.

Naruto was amazed at the changes his tearing of the seal had wrought onto his body. Everything he saw, smelled, and heard seemed sharper, much more defined. He could even smell the emotions of the people around him! Snorting, he made his way home, to get dressed properly, and eat something.

The Hokage sighed in relief. So Naruto didn't seem to have any mental damage from his ordeal; that was good. He just hoped the boy would be able to integrate with his teammates well after this. Putting the crystal ball into a drawer, he looked around secretively before pressing a hidden button and out popped his copy of 'Icha Icha Paradise.' Within minutes, he was giggling perversely, a blush forming on his cheeks.

**One week later----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Naruto had to admit, the new Team 7 was awesome. With Sakura's demotion, there was a gap in the team that had needed to be filled, and Haku was glad to take it. Both Naruto and Sasuke were surprised to see that Haku was a girl, and relieved that she wasn't one of Sasuke's fangirls. The two of them might have had to have killed her if she had been.

But the team had to be the most powerful one there. Sasuke, though still intent on avenging his brother, had become friends with Naruto and Haku. This had increased their drive to become stronger and excel. Sasuke and Naruto unknowingly took a page out of Lee's book and began wearing weights, while Haku was working with Kakashi to improve her speed. All three of them were well past lower-chunin, but not quite mid-level.

Then came the day of reckoning. Sasuke and Haku had been watching Naruto play with Konohamaru and his friends when the third's grandson bumped into a trio of sand nins.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he smelled the stench of danger around the group. Growling slightly, he moved towards the one that held Konohamaru. "Release the boy now."

The boy clad in black sneered, "Why should I, you punk! That little brat ran into me, he should be punshed!"

At those words, flashbacks of his ordeals shot through Naruto's head and he growled again. I'll only tell you this once again, let the boy go." Now the black-clad boy frowned, then snarled,

" Who the hell do you think you are, hot shot? I'd like to see you take him from me!"

In an instant, the Konohamaru in his hand disappeared in a puff of smoke, the real one appeared clinging to Naruto's leg. Naruto grinned, "You were saying?"

Kankurou grit his teeth. The brat had combined kawamiri and some bunshin to get the kid back, that was damn near impossible to do. "Ass hole, see how you like this!" Kankurou spun, unwrapping the puppet attached to his back. Before he could finish however, Naruto gripped his shoulder hard enough to make the boy's joints creak.

"That's a very bad idea friend. Which reminds me, why are you here? I would have thought a puppet master, demon-vessel, and wind mistress would be at their own village."

That floored them. The boy not only knew what they were but he also knew that Gaara…

A trickle of sand fell from the tree, coalescing into a human as it formed together on the ground. The boy was short, with red hair and sleep-deprived eyes, but something about the boy screamed killer. Naruto grinned. He had told Haku and Sasuke about his demon two days after waking from his ordeal, and they had both accepted him, now he could talk openly around them.

"Ah, glad to see you're here, Shukaku. Have you been causing this poor boy pain?" Temari and Kankurou were incredulous. This kid knew about Skukaku, and addressed it directly! Temari idly began to wonder who was more crazy, her brother or the boy.

Gaara clutched his head when Naruto finished his inquiry. The sand demon was trying to get out…and won.

"Ah, good to see you, Lord kyuubi, or rather his vessel."

Naruto smirked. "What the hell is going on with your vessel, Shukaku? He looks half-mad from lack of sleep."

Shukaku-Gaara sighed, "His idiot father sealed a mad priest into him with me, and ever so often, the priest and I have to fight for control, thus causing the kid's occasional lapses of insanity. It gets really bad when the priest wins our fights." Gaara's form slumped in sadness.

Naruto walked up and patted Gaara-Shukaku on the shoulder. "Don't worry, everything will be fine. If you want, I can get someone to fix it for you after the exams. Would that work for you?" Gaara stared at him, his expression disbelieving.

"Would you?" Naruto nodded, his smile infectious.

"Yep. Besides, how can I not help someone who has such a cute sister?" He winked at Temari as he said this. Said girl blushed like a tomato.

Gaara smiled a bit, while Haku felt a twang of jealousy run through her. Stubbornly, she pushed it down. Naruto must surely be kidding.

"Before I allow her to be courted, I must know the name of her suitor." Naruto grinned.

"Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki."

"Thank you, Naruto. This is my sister, Temari, and my brother, Kankurou. I hope we meet in the chunin exams." Naruto laughed,

"I do too."

Later that day, Team 7 received their applications for the chunin exams.

Naruto stared impassively at the rest of the genin that were attempting to become chunin. Hardly any of them seemed fit for the task. He knew his team was, after all, they had been given their training courses by the Kyuubi.

Sasuke had nearly doubled his speed, bringing it up to the level of a jounin. His chakra capacity had increased exponentially, and he was now able to use the Grand Fireball technique multiple times without getting tired. Also, his Sharingan had increased to two dots, purely from training.

Haku had worked primarily on her taijutsu, as she needed a back-up plan in case her bloodline ability failed. For that, she had had to train with Gai…she was still in therapy. She had also created some new techniques with her bloodline.

Naruto had unfortunately gotten the hardest training. After working on chakra control, accuracy, and general knowledge of weapons, he was given a break during lunches before he went on to strength training, ninjutsu, and taijutsu. He now carried with him two kamas, a katana, and a new pair of gloves he had designed himself with one inch spikes set into the knuckles.

While he was sleeping, Naruto was also tutored by the Kyuubi, since physical training in the mindscape was just about useless. He was taught history, languages, culture, etiquette, and, Naruto's favorite, strategy.

That was why the three of them weren't worried when they walked into the hallway, all of them noticing that the sign said 201, not 301. keeping their cool, they just walked past the others.

When they entered the testing facility, Naruto narrowed his eyes instantly. The smell of snakes was somewhere in here. Something in him, other than the Kyuubi, told him to stay on his guard.

Yawning widely, he watched amused as the rest of the Rookie 9 walked in. that was when one of the older genin, one with brown hair tied up into buns, noticed him. "Excuse me, but are you any good with those weapons, you're carrying?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow, "I'm fair. Why?" the girl smirked,

"I'm a weapon mistress, I excel at using weapons, whether they're thrown or hand-held, and I can hit a target 10 out of 10 times."

"Impresssive." Naruto drawled, "I might enjoy fighting you if we get the chance."

"You two should quiet down." Instantly, Naruto was on full alert. Though he appeared relaxed to the rest of the genin, his instant readiness was caught by his teammates, and they idly shifted, though only a seasoned ninja would be able to tell they could launch into an attack in less than a second.

The voice belonged to a silver-haired nin with glasses who was approaching them. Naruto licked the air quickly, before mentally nodding to himself. This ninja was too powerful to be a genin. Something was wrong.

"And why's that?" yelled Kiba, who was looking very annoyed.

"Because most of the people here would love to get your blood on their hands, merely just to spill it." Naruto snorted, this guy was good. Of course, he smelled of snakes, he _would_ have to be talented at threats and subterfuge.

He ignored the rest of the conversation as he studied the rest of the teams around him. there were several leaf teams, which was o be expected, as Konoha ws hosting the exams, as well as a few rain nin, two stone teams, one lightning, two cloud, three sound, and the sand team.

Upon spotting the sand team, Naruto headed over to them. "I guess we are taking the exams after all, Gaara-san." The red-headed boy smiled slightly, a simple twitch of the mouth.

"I guess we are, Naruto-sama." Naruto snorted again,

"Please, no –sama. If you absolutely must, just use –san or-dono."

Gaara nodded, "Of course Naruto-san."

The blonde smiled. "That's better. Now, I've learned a little about sealing from Kyuubi, and he told me that I should be able to fix your seal, but that we require a gesture of good faith on your part."

"And that would be?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously,

"Well, the deal is, we will fix your seal, as well as increase your strength, if, and only if, you do not kill or seriously injure any Konoha nin during the exams."

Temari's heart dropped. That was a nearly impossible task. Gaara had a hard enough time trying to stop himself from killing people, but not actually _harming_ them? Her brother would never be able to sleep now. She sighed, catching the attention of the blonde…Naruto, his name was.

He just stared at her, before speaking. "Have you no faith in your siblng? If he truly wanted it bad enough, he would do anything to have it. All I require is that he harm none of our nins so that we may be able to perform at the fullest. That, and a few of them are my friends."

Temari gulped, "I apologize, Naruto-san." The boy chuckled softly,

"It's not me you should be apologizing to. It's Gaara." The girl looked nervously at her brother, but his face was totally devoid of any emotion, until,

"Don't worry sister, I will keep my word." The girl nodded before turning back to Naruto, who seemed satisfied with the results.

"Alright, well Ibiki-san's on his way here, so, I must take my leave, good-bye for now. Gaara-san, Kankurou-san, Temari-chan." Taking a hold of the blonde girl's hand, he bent at the waist and kissed it elegantly.

Temari was an unfair shade of crimson as she held her now-blessed hand. _Never_ had she been treated like that. Gaara shot her a sidelong glance. "You like him don't you?"

Temari blinked. This was only the second time she had met and talked with Naruto, but he seemed to exude an aura that compelled people to like him, but for her it seemed as if it was targeting her directly. "Yes," She said, bringing her hand to her face, "I do like him."

Gaara nodded before smiling a full smile. "Good."

Kankurou was ignoring all of them as he was applying more make-up on his face.

Author's note—Chappy done! Finally! Also, I actually got someone to beta my stories, so they will (hopefully) be even better. I am allowing her to add an editor's note on my stories, so please pay attention to what she says! Btw, I shold be updating my other story within a week or two, if my luck holds out, but I'm going to be extremely busy, as I've got several tests to study for, JeffCo invite swim meet, bagpipe practice, and normal HW to deal with, so…please be patient.

**Editors note—Hello everyone! I must thank soulthief on allowing me to beta his story, I love Naruto as a powerhouse. Anyway, I think that's all I have to say for now, bye. **


	4. Chapter 4

The left Hand of Kami

Chapter 4

**Gasp! Omg! A new chappie! The world will end! Hmm…well I apologize for the long wait, I've been very busy recently, with homework, swimteam, bagpipes, all that good stuff. Plus, I can only get on for half an hour every night if I'm lucky, and that's for homework. But still, THAT DOES NOT COUNT AS AN EXCUSE! (Breathes heavily before looking around to see if siblings were privy to outburst. Seeing none, maintains non-killing mood.) oh well, I'm just glad I could write some more. I feel bad for my beta though, as she's both my beta and part of my staff for 'Power and polygamy' which is a naruxharem C2, as well as powerfulnaruto. Most of them happen to be my favorite stories.**

**Reviewers response---- I got a crapload of reviews for this story, it really surprises me, but I'm grateful, save for the one person who keeps telling me spaces between paragraphs are not just a suggestion. I realize this, but why don't you try and have perfect structure at 11 o'clock at night! (Venting complete.)**

**Well I remember one review that said that they wanted Kyuubi to be a girl and join the harem. Now, the ONLY way for me to do this is if I get the majority of you to accept it.**

**Also, there is a slight rivalry between Haku and Temari. However, that will not last, as this a harem fic, where everyone gets along. **

**Onw, I also want to know whether or not there should be a small yuri pairing within the harem. I'm not opposed to yuri, probably because I'm a guy.**

**Anyways on with the story……**

The first two tests had been shockingly easy for Naruto's team. They had all passed the first test with flying colors, and then had gotten to the tower in the shortest amount of time ever, beating even the sand team.

Now they were waiting for their preliminary matches to begin. Naruto stole a sidelong glance to Sasuke, who smirked. They knew they were stronger than some of the others here, but they would still have to be careful.

"First match, …." Naruto stopped paying attention to the matches as he began to sniff the emotions of those around him. there was some anxiety, with more than a little fear, with just a hint od adrenaline. He also caught the slight scent of snakes. Narrowing his eyes, he turned his attention back to the matches at hand.

Sasuke had beaten his opponent, a rain nin, easily within a minute, causing huge cheers to erupt from his fangirl section. Then doing, something totally unSasuke-ish, he winked and smiled at them. Naruto sighed as Sasuke came up next to them;.

"Why do you tease them like that, Sasuke? You just know they're going to keep on chasing you for that now." Sasuke grinned, a weird glint in his eyes,

"I know, I kind of like when they chase me. Besides, I still need help reviving my clan."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto watched as Haku turned a grass nin into a pincushion, somehow managing not to kill him. he smiled an idle thought running through his head as Haku bowed to the mediator, _she looks pretty like that_.

Finally it was Naruto's turn. He was pitted against that brown-haired girl from before, TenTen, he thought her name was. He shook loose his muscles as he descended into the arena, a small smile on his face. As the instructor raised his hand, Naruto drew the two kamas from behind his back.

Neji gave off a snort, "What the hell is that idiot doing? He doesn't stand a chance against Tenten in weapons." Haku frowned,

"I think you'll find that your assumption is incorrect, Neji-san. Watch the match." Neji snarled at her, but returned his attention nonetheless.

"Hajime!" Naruto charged TenTen, bringing his kamas to either side of his body as he approached the girl. Tenten smiled, before summoning a Chinese straight sword and charging right back at him. They met in the middle, a wave of air pushing out from where they had met. They stood there for a whole second before attacking again.

Tenten withdrew first, before angling in for a thrust. Naruto caught the thrust with one of his kamas, turning it aside, then used the other to slice towards Tenten's throat. The girl ducked, before sending out a sweeping kick. Hopping over it, Naruto spun in midair, sending the straight sword flying out of tenten's grasp to imbed itself conveniently right next to Neji in the stone.

That didn't deter TenTen, though. Stepping back, she summoned two katanas and charged again. Ducking under her first slice, he rolled to the side, just barely getting grazed by the second sword.

Standing, he frowned at the blood coating the side of his shirt. "Alright, I can't risk having to lose this match, so I'll end it here." With that he disappeared, and an unconscious TenTen fell towards the ground, only to be caught by Naruto, who set her down gently. Instantly, two female minds twinged in jealousy, '_I wish he would do something like that for me.'_

The rest of the prelims went without any surprises. Gaara had almost killed Lee when they had fought, but then suddenly stopped, looking up towards Naruto. After that match, they were given the names of who their next opponents would be.

Naruto got Neji, Haku got Gaara, Temari got Kiba, Kankurou against Shino, Sasuke got Dosu, and Shikamaru against Ino.

After that, they were told that they would have one month to train before the final matches occurred…

**"Kit, I have an idea for your training." **

"What Kyuubi-sensei?" Ever since the nine-tails had started training him and the others, Naruto had grown to respect the fox, and had begun calling him teacher. Little did Naruto know, the respect went both ways.

**"Get that man, Zabuza, to teach you to use the Great sword. Not only will it give you another weapon, but it will also be extremely intimidating and if you use the right metal, you will be able to channel chakra throught it, allowing you to create new jutsus." **

"That sounds cool."

When Naruto found the man, he was leaning against a tree, reading a book. "Ohayo Zabuza-san!" looking up at the blonde ball of energy, Zabuza smiled and waved.

"Hey, Naruto, what can I do for you?"

"Well, I was talking with Kyuubi sensei, and he suggested that I learn how t use the Great sword from you. Could you please teach me?"

Zabuza chuckled. "Sure thing kid. It seemed like your kind of weapon anyways. Any objections to starting now? The sooner, the better." Naruto shook his head. If he wanted to be able to use the sword with any skill, he would have to get started immediately. Zabuza nodded, and, out of nowhere, produced a wooden sword. "Practice with this. I want one thousand upward swings, one thousand down swings, a thousand swings each to either side, and a thousand swings going up and down diagonally. Get started."

For a week, Naruto just used the bokken in his training, each time he was able to do the swings easily, Zabuza added more weight. By the end of the week, Naruto was swinging easily half a ton, something which the demon of the Mist hadn't thought possible, but he chalked up to Kyuubi.

During the second week, Zabuza was shocked as he noticed that Naruto was practically absorbing the moves he was giving him. something was happening inside the blonde, as he grew exponentially in the half a month he had been trained. By the time Zabuza had taught him everything, the boy was probably as good as, or better, than the Demon of the Mist. It was time for Naruto to graduate from Zabuza's school of the Great Sword.

"Very good Naruto." Said Zabuza as Naruto performed the final kata with flawless precision. The blond nodded in acknowledgement, before straightening and wiping the small sheen of sweat from his brow. Zabuza grinned as he fingered at what he held behind his back. "It's time for you to get some more training with someone else, though, kid. You've already learned everything I could teach you, and then some. So, in honor of your graduation, here's a gift." Zabuza pulled the item from out behind his back and held it out to Naruto.

It was a great sword, sheathed in a black leather scabbard. There was gold lettering on the scabbard that said 'Demon of Konoha'. Unsheathing the sword, Naruto held it in front of him with wonder. The metal it was made from was an alloy of some sort. At first, the blade looked like the standard silver, but when Naruto waved it around a little, the sword seemed to shine blue. The balance was perfect, and the cross-piece had seals on it that allowed him to change its weight and store chakra.

But that wasn't the best part. The blade itself held a colored engraving of the Kyuubi, its nine tails wrapping up the blade, with flames licking all the way to the top. But this Kyuubi was different from the ones in the books. Instead of pure hatred and murder, this Kyuubi exuded an aura of nobility and honor. Looking closer at the bottom of the blade, Naruto noticed a tiny picture of Konohagakure. The Kyuubi was protecting the village.

He turned to Zabuza, tears in his eyes, "It's beautiful. Thank you." Zabuza shrugged,

"No problem. But, seeing as you now are a member of the new 8 swordsmen of the Mist/Konoha, you have to name your blade." Naruto only thought for a second. "Honor of Kyuubi." (Translation please)

The last two weeks of Naruto's training were spent with a perverted old man he had found spying on the baths. He had blackmailed the old man into teaching him, using threats of anatomical amputations if did not do so. The man taught Naruto how to walk on water and summon toads, as well as the basics of the rasengan, which secretly, Naruto had mastered on his own. that left him two days to learn basic elemental jutsu, something he was extremely lacking in.

The day of the finals was practically drenched in anticipation. All of the lords were in attendance, as well as most of the kages. The arena was now open-aired, and the matches open to the general public. Naruto grinned from his spot on top of the arena. No one had noticed he was there yet, and he had no intention of telling them.

Sarutobi watched amused as he saw the black dot that was Naruto standing on the edge away from him. The boy truly had grown powerful. Even though the blonde was hiding his chakra, The hokage could still feel the immense force he exuded. A sudden poof to both his right and left drew his attention. "Zabuza, Jiraiya, how nice of you to attend." Zabuza smirked,

"How could I not? You got a gem there, Hokage. That boy is something else. He learned my entire style in less than two weeks. For that I got him something special. Wait till you see it." Jiraiya snorted,

"That's nothing. He learned water walking, and he summoned Gamabunta on just his second try. With his own chakra too. So, since he seemed to get those quite easily, I began to teach him the rasengan, which no doubt, by now he's at least competent in."

Saruobi grinned. This was excellent news. He already knew that the sound village was attempting to attack Konoha during the finals, but he hoped the matches would be over by then. He was itching to see what Naruto was capable of.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and especially Haku were also curious. They had seen neither hide nor hair of the boy in the last month, and wanted to know what he had done.

Sasuke and Haku had changed a lot over the month. Sasuke was dressed in forest camo pants, with a black t-shirt that said 'Wanna play with my Kunai?'. Haku was wearing a skirt that reached about mid thigh, with black shorts on underneath, and a spaghetti-strap shirt that said 'Caution! Handle with care!'. Kakashi…well, he was simply reading his book like always.

The hokage signaled for the matches to start….

The first few matches went by quickly, neither of them lasting more than two minutes. Sasuke, Shino, Shikamaru, Temari, and Gaara all passed on. Then it was time for Naruto to fight.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Called out the mediator of the matches. Instantly, a black-cloaked figure was by his side, a huge sword on his back. Hayate nodded once, before calling down Neji.

"Hajime!" Nothing happened. The two just stared at each other, though Naruto's look was hidden by his hood. Then Naruto moved. Neji tensed instantly, but relaxed when he saw Naruto was only pulling down his hood. It revealed a tanned face framed by a blonde mop of hair. Somehow, all of Naruto's babyfat disappeared, leaving his face sharp and angular.

Reaching up with one hand, Naruto untied the cloak, letting it blow away, revealing what he was wearing underneath. His pants were a glossy black that somehow did not reflect in the sunlight, with the bottoms tucked into the top of his calf-high boots.

His shirt was a deep crimson, and skin tight, showing off his muscles. Two leather straps ran across each of his shoulders, which supported the immense weight of his great sword. Grinning, Naruto pulled on his spike gloves and raised the cloth that was hanging around his neck so that it became a mask like kakashi's.

Instantly, Neji attacked, his fingers searching for pressure points. But Naruto wouldn't let him. He slid smoothly from one side to the other, dodging each attack. It was then that Neji leaped into the air and began to spin. "Kaiten!" Naruto smiled, and drew his sword.

The hokage's eyes widened as he stared at the sword. It was beautiful, a true masterpiece. He turned his eyes to Zabuza, who was looking down at Naruto with adoration. "That's my kid."

Naruto swung his sword back, and began feeding it chakra. When the blade began to glow, he swung it forward with all of his strength. Sword met Kaiten, and Kaiten lost. Neji was flung back into the far wall, leaving an inch deep crater. Naruto just shrugged, before swinging his sword, though there was no blood on it, and sheathing it again. Neji didn't regain cnscioussness for several more hours.

Thus it was that the absolute finals came about. Naruto was up against Gaara, Sasuke against Shino, and Temari against Shikamaru. Naruto's battle was first, but not yet, as the competitors were given a one hour resting period.

When he rejoined his team, he was glomped by Haku, and gven a slight grin by Sasuke. "Well it appears as if one of us has been busy." The Uchiha stated. Naruto laughed and returned Haku's hug, before absentmindedly kissing her on her forehead. The poor girl reddened so much she looked as if she was going to pass out.

The hour was spent talking about the kinds of training they had done, and, just as Naruto was getting into the good stuff, the gong sounded, signaling for the matches to begin.

The blonde walked into the middle of the ring, facing Gaara. Grinning, he drew his sword before calling out, "Gaara, tell you what. You and me go all out in this battle, no holds-barred. If I win, I get you help to fix the seal, and you and your team become leaf nins. If I lose, you get the seal, but you can do whatever you want to me."

Gaar stared at him before answering, "Agreed." Temari, who was standing in the box next to the hokage paled. "What is Naruto-kun doing? If he loses, Gaara will kill him!" She started when a hand rested on her shoulder. It was Zabuza.

"Don't worry about the id. He knows what he's doing. Just have faith, and things will turn out okay in the end." Not _entirely_ reassured, Temari returned her attention to the fight.

Naruto stared blankly as the fight began and, Gaara began to charge up. Naruto did the same, and he felt the power coursing through him like lightning.

It was when they hit their peaks of normal chakra that they then began to summon demonic chakra. Unfortunately, Naruto was already mostly full of his chakra, and therefore could only hold a little bit of demon, but it was enough for him.

He charged Gaara, yelling a warcry, as he brought the blade down in a diagonal cut. Gaara attempted to block it with his sand, but the blade simply cut through it. The red haired boy stumbled back, his shoulder bleeding profusely.

Growling slightly, the red head summoned a huge wave of sand to come crushing down on naruto. Quickly, Naruto began making one-handed seals, before swinging his sword up, digging a furrow into the ground and launching a huge chakra wave at the sand avalanche. "Breath of the nine-tails!" yelled Naruto. The two forces collided in a titanic clash of power, before seeming to flash once and both collapsed. That left them standing on a miniature desert.

Gaara scowled before using what little chakra he had left to make a great sword identical to Naruto's and the two met again. This time, all most people could see were red and yellow blurs, and the occasional upkick of sand. In their time however, Naruto had found a swordsmen that was as good as he was. The two of them were exchanging minor cuts on each other, most of them healing right away, but a flash of temari's teary face suddenly dropped Naruto's guard, and Gaara slammed him painfully into the wall.

All the air left Naruto, and he collapsed to his knees wheezing, attempting to hold onto his senses. Thankfully, Gaara just decided to stand there and watch as Naruto recovered.

"Nice one Gaara, but now I have to return the favor. I hope you don't think I'm gay or anything, but I don't want to rip my shirt, it's brand new." With that, Naruto threw off his shirt, revealing a very muscular torso, as well as the hideous scars that covered his body. "Don't worry about those, just a little memento from my first big mission. Now, I will show you the true power me and my 'tenant' possess." Naruto summoned as much of kyuubi's chakra as he could, and suddenly, the visage of Naruto changed, from a relatively happy kid, to a seasoned veteran.


	5. Chapter 5

The left hand of Kami

Chapter 5

Kitsune no giri

**Ohayo! Yet another update from me! After a ton of good reviews about chapter 4, I'm ready and pumped to write some more! Although I think there might have been some slight confusion. As I stated multiple times before, I hate yaoi. My idea for a small yuri pairing inside my story has been vehemently objected against, so I guess I'll pass on that one. Now, I would ask you all to please give a round of applause for my beta, Liusadh, who so far has done a stand up job, especially when having to deal with me and my erratic schedule. Anyways, enough of my rambling…ONTO THE STORY!**

The two of them faced off, their eyes unblinking and their bodies unmoving. Then Naruto began to fill his sword, Kitsune no giri, full of chakra, and it gave off a red pulse, as the engraved Kyuubi on it seemed to roar. Gaara snarled, and raised his sand in readiness.

Naruto charged, his sword outstretched at stomach level. Red lines of chakra seemed to trail from the blade as the boy neared the wall of sand Gaara had constructed. Naruto roared, and brought his sword down in a diagonal slash.

Sparks flew and a loud screeching sound was heard when the steel met the sand. For a second, the two forces fought for dominance, until the sand slowly began to give way. Gaara gritted his teeth, before simultaneously dropping the shield and spinning, his sand sword swinging into a backhand cut that could cut Naruto in half.

Naruto instead went with his forward momentum, caused when the resistance against his sword disappeared, into a roll that just barely took him under Gaara's weapon. Leaping at the end of his roll, he spun, his blade arching and glinting in the sunlight as he attacked Gaara from the air.

Gaara's arm was a blur, as he blocked all of Naruto's attacks, creating a blur of brown and black. As Naruto landed, the two of them leaped away from each other, before another surge of demonic chakra pulsed through them, and they launched at each other again.

This time the whole arena was there battlefield. Flashes and images of them showed as they jumped and leaped off of the walls and trees, their blades ringing out in the still air.

The hokage cursed softly at the skill displayed by the two. "What have you been teaching Naruto, you two? His skills are easily chuunin, possibly even jounin." Jiraiya chuckled, "We told you Hokage, Naruto was an amazing student. His body has the ability to adapt extremely fast to different situations. In two weeks he had already added 200 pounds to his weights. He's like a sponge with jutsus, he learns them quickly and effieciently, and can even change them in mid-combat to work with whatever situation he's in."

The hokage smiled slightly. _You should be proud of your son, Arashi._

By now the entire field was scarred from the effects of the two genins' fighting. Gaara was severely out of breath while Naruto was merely winded. Lifting his sword to point at Gaara, the blonde said, "surrender, Gaara. Your oath has already been fulfilled. There's no need for you to continue to abuse yourself like this. However, I must admit, you are the best exercise I've gotten in a while. Just give up, I don't want to hurt you."

Gaara smirked slightly, before standing up from where he had been formerly doubled over in an attempt to get his wind back. "Gomen, Naruto, but that would be dishonorable, especially among us swordsmen. Didn't you know that? Combat, even if it is simply a spar, must end in one of the contestants being knocked out, or dying."

Naruto sighed before rubbing his forehead. This kid was beginning to give him a headache. "Fine, you want to be knocked out? I'll do it. Just don't get pissed at me afterwards."

Naruto brought his sword up to his face and closed his eyes in concentration. "Do you think I'll just sit here and let you do it? Naruto, you underestimate me." Gaara drew a kunai and charged the meditating blonde.

Naruto snapped his eyes open, just as the kunai approached him. he twisted his shoulder, dodging the kunai, before bringing his arm up, fist smashing into Gaara's jaw, sending the redhead into the air. Then Naruto tossed his sword after the flying nin, calling out, "Sword Element- Shadow sword heavenly slice!" Kitsune no giri split into 9 swords in mid-air, surrounding Gaara. Naruto leaped towards the first one, his body enveloping in red energy, as he jumped from one sword to the next, always crossing with Gaara, and delivering a blow as he did. (Think Cloud when he's fighting Sephiroth in FF Advent Children.). as the 9th and last blow hit, Naruto returned to normal, as all of the shadow swords disappeared into the original, which landed not a foot from where the blonde was kneeling, his energy exhausted.

Gaara fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a thud. Naruto could see he was breathing, but the boy wasn't moving.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!"

There was a brief pause, before the whole stadium erupted into cheers. The two chunin who were sitting in the stands smiled at each other. They had their first candidate.

Naruto began to stand painfully, using his sword as a crutch, before someone wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Startled, he looked to see who it was. Four blond pig tails greeted his vision. It was Temari. "Temari, why are you helping me? Gaara needs more help." The girl lifted her face to Naruto. "So? The medics are taking care of him. you are the winner, and need to be ready for the awards ceremony." Naruto didn't say anything in response, he just held Temari a little closer to him as she led him into the stands.

As they made their way up the stairs, Temari looked around cautiously before whispering in Naruto's ear, "Be careful, the sound is getting ready to attack soon. Take the pills in your pocket before doing anything else." Naruto nodded, and wearily took a seat in the stands, not noticing that one of his hands was still clasped in Temari's.

Temari, though, did notice, and blushed furiously. But she made no move to take it out, instead she seemed to hold on even tighter.

Naruto, without making a big show of it, slipped his hand into his pocket and fingered the two pills in it. One was a food pill, the other a soldier pill. Slipping them into his palm, he acted as if he was leaning forward, resting his chin in his hand as he put the pills in his mouth.

Instantly, he felt a rush of energy as his chakra was restored to him. none too late either.

People began to fall asleep throughout the stadium. Naaruto's eyes widened, then narrowed as he made some seals and muttered "Kai", waking Temari up. Looking out into the stadium, Naruto growled at the huge numbers of nins flowing over the walls of the stadium. He drew Kitsune no giri and leaped down to meet them.

The first few to meet him were killed instantly, his weapon skewing them in half in a spray of blood and organs. The next few were a bit more difficult, as they were ready for him. Yet, they still were killed. Then a twinge of danger ran through Naruto and he turned only able to stare as a shuriken headed straight for his face. A blur later, the kunai was deflected in mid-air by Tenten, who winked at him before she turned to a sound nin and slit his throat.

Shrugging it off, Naruto noted that he was in too much of a close proximity to his fellow leaf nins, so he sheathed Kitsune no giri, and flexed his hands, the spikes on the knuckles of his gloves causing some nins to turn green. Grinning like a madman, Naruto began to lay into the enemy, his punches severely bruising where they hit armor, or shredding where they hit flesh.

He spin-kicked, breaking the neck of one sound nin, before catching another in the throat with his knuckles, blood spraying out from the mortal wound. Drawing his kamas, he swiveled, avoiding a katana slice, and brought one kama down, severing the man's arm, then, just as quickly, beheading him.

Sarutobi was currently fighting Orochimaru, who had disguised himself as the kazekage. He was accompanied by Jiraiya and Zabuza. Together, they were wearing down the missing nin. Already, they had prevented orochimaru from summoning the hokages, and now, the sannin was running out of chakra. Facing a kage, a sannin, and a jounin will do that to you.

The tide was turning quickly in favor of Konoha. Even though they had the element of surprise, the sound nin had expected an easy killing spree inside the stadium, not an enraged sword-wielding nin. Not only that, but more and more ninjas of the leaf were awakening, thanks to the timely arrival of Kakashi and Kurenai. Already, they had lost half of their number, and was close to losing three-quarters of their attacking strength.

Suddenly, the call to retreat was sounded, and the nins backed off, fleeing back towards their village.

Orochimaru had sounded a retreat, after having lost the use of his arms. His punishment, however, was nothing compared to the price that the Third had paid. The old man was dead, his lifeless body laying flat on the tiles of the tower, laid there by Jiraiya and Zabuza, who had been unable to protect their leader.

The funeral was a solemn affair, as are all funerals. But, unlike most funerals, there were very few tears at this one. After all, Shinobi must be able to hide their emotions.

Naruto took full opportunity of the event though, to plan what he was going to do now. He needed to learn some more sword styles, as well as increasing his overall speed and strength. Sighing, he turned away as the funeral ended.

Naruto approached Jiraiya and Zabuza the day after the funeral, asking both of them if they knew any sword styles he could use. "Sorry kid, I've only got the one that you already know, and Jiraiya is a jutsu expert. Eventually, you'll get him to teach you jutsus, but you'll have to find someone else to teach different sword styles." Jiraiya nodded his agreement.

"That reminds me. In about a week you're coming with me to find the next hokage. Her name is Tsunade, and she is the last of the three sannin. Unfortunately, it may be a long trip, as no one really knows where she is."

Naruto nodded in understanding, before excusing himself and leaving their company.

Walking through the village, Naruto noted that the glares sent his way had noticeably lessened, as word of his feats during the sound attack had spread. There were still quite a few glares, but they had were significantly reduced in hatred.

Shaking his head at this, Naruto sighed as he looked at his surroundings. He was in the shinobi market area, easily defined from the normal market as everyone walking in this area was wearing a hitai-ate. Stores advertising shinobi clothing and various weapons and scrolls lined the street, but one store caught his attention.

It was huddled in the corner, totally non-descript, but it seemed to have an allure to it, attracting Naruto towards its door.

Inside, the shop was well-lit, and warm. Despite the weapons and scrolls inside the store, the interior seemed to exude an aura of familiarity and friendship. Smiling slightly, Naruto made his way up to the front counter.

There was a man there, his hitai-ate tilted on his head, making him look like Zabuza. Attached to his back was a katana, with an ornate red handle and black sheathe, gilded with gold lettering. Looking up from the book he was reading the man stared at Naruto with hard brown eyes. "May I help you?"

Quirking an eyebrow, Naruto said, "I'm not sure. I'm a student of Zabuza, Kakashi, and Jiraiya, and I'm trying to learn more sword styles for my Great Sword, but Zabuza said I already know his only style, and Jiraiya is only a jutsu specialist. I was wondering if you would happen to know where I can get someone to teach me different styles."

The man stared at him for a bit before answering. "Sure, I know someone. But first, you have to pass a test." "A test?"

The man nodded, before putting his book down and stepping out from behind the counter. "Follow me out to the backyard." Not quite sure of what to do, Naruto followed the man, but kept a healthy distance, so he would be able to act if something went wrong.

Unbeknownst to the blonde, the man had seen his actions, and was smiling to himself.

The backyard truly surprised Naruto. It had been fashioned to look like a giant arena, with various posts, dummies, and targets littering the ground. What scared Naruto was that the dummies were stuck full of numerous types of weapons. Looking closely at one dummy, Naruto was shocked to see that it had been stabbed in the groin with an ornamental chopstick that had been given a sharp metal point.

Gulping, Naruto turned his attention back to the man, who had stopped walking and turned around to face Naruto. In a flash, the man drew his katana, sending a wave of razor-sharp wind towards Naruto.

Time seemed to slow for Naruto as he tracked the blade of wind, spinning and using the force of his spin to help draw his sword faster, before having it connect with the wind blade. There was a loud –clang- as the attack was dissipated, turning into a harmless breeze that ruffled Naruto's clothes.

Then Naruto attacked, his sword leveled for a thrust to the man's center of mass. the man blurred, before appearing on top of the sword as Naruto finished his thrust. But Nauto had anticipated this, and quickly fired off a small katon jutsu, sending a fireball at the man.

The man spun, kicking Kyuubi no giri down, and throwing Naruto off balance, before attacking again, his sword slicing diagonally.

Narutoo rolled with his imbalance, narrowly avoiding the first slice. At the end of his roll, he jumped up into a backflip, dodging the waist-level cut. He was unable to avoid the kick that sent him back crashing into the ground, however.

Coughing once, he jumped back to his feet, clutching his gut and wheezing. It was then that he noticed one very important fact. His sword was on the other side of the arena. Growling, he crouched, ready to defend against any attack the man made, while furiously trying to come up with a way to get to his sword.

The man grinned. He hadn't had a fight this fun in a long time. His grin disappeared, though, when Naruto began doing handseals. 'Wait a minute, those are the handseals for…'

"Katon: Karyuuendan!" (A/N is that right?) a huge dragon of fire came twisting out of Naruto's mouth, spiraling towards the man. The man jumped above the attack, but was caught in a full nelson by Naruto, who slammed them both into the ground.

The man groaned, as he lay twitching in a huge crater. His attention was brought back fully to the situation at hand when a very large and very sharp blade was poking his throat.

"Why did you attack me?" The man gulped, feeling his adam's apple brush lightly against the blade. "That was the test. I had to see how competent you were with the sword before deciding on what kind of instruction you needed. A spar would have been useless. I wanted to be able to see your full skills, without having to worry about injuring me. Congratulations, you pass!"

Narutostared at the man long and hard, his sword never wavering.

"What the hell are you doing to my father?"


	6. Chapter 6

The left hand of kami

**Oh my god, I'm not dead! My apologies for taking so long, I've been extremely busy for a while now. I wanted to get my Harry Potter fic up while I was still being attacked by massive plot bunnies. Even now, with the little free time I have, this chapter should take me a bit longer than they normally do. I don't know if any of you have read my Harry Potter story, but for the last few chapters, the number of pages I wrote was double what I normally write. I will try and incorporate this here as well, from now on. Also, I'm still looking for staff for my C2 'power and polygamy.' I'm not sure, but I might try and create another harem C2, simply to counteract all of the yaoi out there. But alas, I am only one man, boy really, amongst a plethora of fangirls. However, I am willing to stake my sanity on trying to get het fics to the same level as yaoi. Even when going for het pairings on the engine comes up with yaoi. We must stop this. We are the ones chosen to continue on with the cycle of life on Earth. After all, if het isn't around, the humans would all die out. And don't even get me started on mpreg. I shudder to think of how the child would extricate itself from its parent. Another pet peeve, though this one not quite as serious, is that I dislike the number of naruhina fics out there. I am strange in that I prefer the more odd pairings to the more traditional. For example, I will read a naru/kurenai over a naruto/Ino, though I still do read the more traditional ones. I just think that there are enough naruhina fics for now. Let the others catch up. **

_"What the hell are you doing to my father?"_

"Eh? Ten-chan, what are you doing here?" Tenten threw him a glare. "I live here Naruto! Now tell me why the hell my father is on the ground with your sword at his throat!"

Naruto blinked for a few seconds before, "Oh shit! My apologies, sir!" Naruto sheathed his sword, helping the man to his feet. The man chuckled. "No problem. I actually found it rather refreshing. Of course, you know I was holding back, don't you?"

"I kinda figured it. I mean, there was no way I should have been able to beat you in sheer strength alone. Not against someone who trains with heavy weapons like that."

"You carry a huge sword like that and then say you couldn't beat me in sheer strength? You must be crazy." "No seriously. Maybe if I had a little more training with it, I could get stronger, but right now, I have about a week to get as strong as possible."

The man blinked. "A week, what could you possibly learn in a week?" "As much as I can. I need it to get stronger, and for a mission I'm taking at the end of the week."

"What's the mission?" Asked tenten, her curiosity piqued. "I'm to go with Jiraiya to go find the next hokage, her name is Tsunade, I think."

Half a second later, he found himself being shaken to death by a very excited Tenten. "you're going to get Tsunade! One of the sannin? Can I go with you, huh? Can I? Can I?"

Naruto was unable to answer, as he was being violently shaken, his eyes turning to little swirls. "Gah…" "Tenten, honey, if you don't stop shaking him, you'll never get your answer."

"Huh? Oh, gomen, Naruto!" Tente released Naruto, who promptly began to stagger around in random patterns before he ran into a tree. "Itai." With that he fell to the ground unconscious.

Raising an eyebrow at his daughter, the man asked, "You really do tend to leave an impression on people, don't you, Tenten? First you 'accidentally' stabbed that pervert in the ass with a kunai, then you get my future student to knock himself out. What next? Playing tag with explosives?"

Tenten turned red. "Father, that was an accident! Besides, playing tag with explosives is no fun. Sharp, pointy objects are the only way to go." The man stared at her before sighing and hitting his head repeatedly against the wall of his house. "Only in my family…only in my family…" "Oh come on father, you know I love you."

"…Just get Naruto up, will you? If he only has a week, I need to train him as much as possible." Tenten saluted cheekily, before turning to back towards Naruto. "Oh, and Tenten? No weapons."

Naruto was dripping with sweat as he sparred against Kenji (tenten's father.). the week of his training had been brutal, not even coming near his schedule from before the finals.

Even though he had gone against Garra in the finals, he had been using kyuubi, which had increased his strength and stamina a great deal. Now, however, he was working solely to better himself without the fox's help.

So far, he had only learned a single additional style, the cutting wind technique, which was what Tenten had used against him in the exam. The style involved high-speed handling of his sword, in order to get as many swings in as possible. This was so the chakra he gathered into his sword would have more power. At the moment, he could only get about 100 blades of wind in a minute.

He had noticed something rather interesting when he was experimenting with the technique. If he combined his 'breath of the nine-tails' technique with his blades of wind move, he could create burning blades of chakra, which cut far more easily.

Naruto gasped in exhaustion as he let the arm holding his sword fall to his side, watching as his blades of wind reduced the trunk of the tree into a shower of splinters.

Kenji clapped softly. "Very nice. With a bit more control, the cuts will be cleaner. Right now, though, I want you to work on your speed. I want you to be able to hit at least 3 or 4 hundred slices when you get back, understand?"

Naruto nodded from his doubled-over position. Just as he got his second wind, Jiraiya appeared. "Naruto, it's time to go." "Hai. Arigatou for the training, Kenji-sensei. I will work on my speed as much as humanly possible. More, if able." Kenji nodded curtly before heading into his house.

Naruto turned to Jiraiya, who threw him a backpack. "Everything you'll need for the trip is in there. Let's get going. We'll probably be gone for a month or two. Normally, I'd let you say goodbye, but it's urgent we leave quickly. I just caught word of her nearby, and I don't want to lose her."

"Understood."

And together they took off past Konoha.

Sakura was a hollow shell of herself. She had gone from being a certified genin to an academy student, again, because she had been uncaring towards her teammate.

She had been at the chunin exams and had seen what Naruto was capable of. She had also seen what the results of his imrisonment had been. The number of scars had sickened even the seasoned shinobi sitting next to her.

She had drastically lost weight, the usual healthy glow of her skin turning to a sickly yellow. Dark bags of skin hung under her eyes, and she had trouble concentrating in the Academy. Everybody had left her, disgusted at her behavior towards a teammate.

In fact the only one who hadn't abandoned her, besides her parents, was Ino. But even she was pissed at her friend. Currently, they were having a very familiar conversation in Sakura's room.

"How could you act like that towards your teammate? Naruto, no less!" sakura hung her head. "I don't know what I was thinking. I thought he had been trying to draw attention away from Sasuke. I thought he had staged the torture just to have us give him attention. I knew how much he craved it, what with his past pranks and all."

Ino shook her head in exasperation, "Girl, how stupid can you be? I barely know Naruto, and yet I can still say that he would never do something like that. were you really that blinded by Sasuke? The boy doesn't even like you."

The tone in which Ino stated that shocked Sakura. "What/ I thought you liked Sasuke?" Ino shrugged, "It was only a crush. I got over it, besides, I'm not the kind of girl he needs. He needs someone like Hinata, to calm him down."

"Have you got your eyes on someone else, then?" Ino smiled sadly, "Well, I did have my eyes set on naruto myself, but there's no way that's going to happen. Have you seen the girls pining after him? That sand girl was practically throwing herself at him, and this whole week, tenten has been bragging about how he's spending so much time at her house. Haku's been a bit more demure about it, but you can still tell."

Sakura was confused, "What attracts you to Naruto? He nothing but a loudmouth, albeit a powerful one." Ino groaned. "That's your problem right there. All you ever do is look at the negative. Yes, he may be loud, or rather, used to be loud, he isn't so much anymore, but he's got so many other redeeming qualitites. Like his insane protectiveness of people, or his strength, or the ability to make you laugh, or even giving you hope when there's none left. Did you know he blames himself for the Third's death? He feels he wasn't strong enough, or fast enough. He thinks that if, just maybe, he had been a bit stronger, or a bt faster, then he could have stopped the Sandaime from dying. That's why he's been training fourteen hours a day for a whole week. That, and he's got a mission."

"A mission, what is his mission?" "it's an A-rank. He's going with Jiraiya of the sannin to find tsunade so she can become the next hokage. Tenten went absolutely bonkers over that."

Sakura was silent. Ino sighed, "Well I have to get back to the shop, so I'll let you chew on that for a while. I suggest you get your priorities in order. I have no doubt that one day, Naruto will be great, and I for one want to be on his good side. From what I've heard, he earned the rank of chuunin as well as a few medals for his actions in the attack. Not only that, but he facilitated an alliance with sand village. I would think of a way to apologize to him." With that, Ino left Sakura by herself.

Not 5 minutes later, Sakura had already made up her mind. Standing shakily on weak legs, she left her house and headed towards Tenten's house.

She had been there for the last few minutes, watching Naruto's conversation with Tenten's father, and then the arrival of Jiraiya. Just as she was about to go up to him and fulfill her plan, they disappeared.

Sakura just stood there in shock. She barely had enough courage to even come to this place, and now she had to wait a whole agonizing month before being able to apologize. She doubted she would be able to muster the courage she needed after the interval.

Feeling her heart sink, she made her way home and cried into her pillow.

Three weeks had passed since they had left Konoha, and Naruto could tell they were getting close. His kyubi-upgraded nose could smell the sake from a mile away. However, the air also reeked of snakes.

"hey, Ero-sennin, we might want to hurry. I can smell her, but I'm also picking up snakes. Do you think it's Orochimaru?" The sannin had a concerned look on his face. "Most likely. We should hurry. Tsunade holds no great love for Konoha. She won't help Orochimaru destroy it, but she might help him with his arms." With that, the duo put on a burst of speed.

A tall, buxom woman stared at the snake-like an in front of her. "And what will you do if I heal your arms?" The man smiled viciously. "Why, get my revenge on konoha, of course. I know you don't want to go back there, Tsunade. You won't care if it's destroyed."

"No, but I sure as hell will." The two sannin turned to see Jiraiya and a blonde-haired boy of about 12 or 13 with a huge sword on his back. "Ah, Jiraiya, how nice to see you again. Last time we met, we were unable to catch up."

The toad sannin scowled, "Whose fault is that, you murdering bastard? You're the one who killed the Sandaime." Tsunade's eyes narrowed dangerously, "You did what?"

Orochimaru chuckled darkly, "How do you think my arms got this way? Sensei was the only one alive who still knew that particular sealing technique."

Tsunade screamed in rage as she charged Orochimaru, only to be brought down by two chakra scalpels to the back of her legs. Naruto frowned as he saw the familiar form of kabuto walk out from behind Tsunade. "Ero-sennin, you take snake-teme, whle I take Kabuto, that good with you?"

Jiraiya ignored the nickname, instead cracking his knuckles, "Fine with me, brat. Just be careful." Naruto grinned, "You know me, Ero-sennin." "yeah, I do, that's why I'm worried."

The two of them separated, heading off towards their individual opponents.

Naruto's fight 

Naruto landed with a heavy thud in front of Kabuto. The genin smiled slightly, "Naruto-kun. How nice to see you. How is your team faring?" Naruto ignored the man's banter, instead choosing to draw his sword. Kabuto laughed, "You think that will work? I saw your style back when you were fighting in the third exam. Nothing you do will surprise me, Naruto."

"Kabuto, I'm gay, and I want you to be my butt-buddy forever." Kabuto began choking, his face bright red. Naruto grinned evilly, "And here you were saying that nothing I could do would surprise you. Must you always underestimate me?"

"What the hell is wrong with you! Don't make statements like that out in public! You never know who will take offence at us!"

Naruto blinked, before… "Good kami above, you're gay!" Kabuto nodded, his eyes filled with unshed tears. "Yes, I am, Naruto-kun. And I would happily be your butt buddy any day." Kabuto ran forward to hug Naruto. "Oh, Fuck no! Get away from me you bloody flamer!"

The two began to run in circles. Kabuto shouted out, "But Naruto, I learned everything I know from Orochi-kun. He can do marvelous things with his tongue. Oh…" Kabuto shuddered, while Naruto just looked horrified. His poor mind was scarred.

"Okay, that's it. Konoha ancient supreme taijutsu: one thousand years of pain!"

All that resulted was a girlish giggle emitting from Kabuto, "Naruto, you could have told me you wanted to play around!"

Naruto screamed out in frustration, before finally raising his sword in front of him. Kabuto looked interested, "Going to put that somewhere…new? I think I might be able to fit it. Go ahead."

Uzumaki special: Sonic flaming wind blade!

The lines of fire representing the blades of wind screamed through the air faster than the speed of sound. Almost all of them connected with kabuto, but Naruto wasn't finished. He kept going for a full minute, counting in his head, without fully comprehending the numbers. _401…402…403…404…_

The speed of the attacks was such that Kabuto was unable to heal himself, and was diced into little pieces that burned to ash before they even fell to the ground.

Of course, Naruto had much more important things on his mind. "Oh my kami, I should have realized he was gay when I saw those glasses."

Jiraiya's fight 

The toad sannin glared across the field at his opponent. Orochimaru looked back impassively, his blackened arms hanging useless at his sides. "Unless you know how to make seals with your toes, this fight is over."

Orochimaru laughed, "Do you truly think I would be here facing you if I wasn't sure of victory? Kabuto, come!" (crickets chirp). "Kabuto! Kabuto! Kabuto, where the hell are you?"

"Judging by the wind direction and speed, I'd say just about everywhere right now."

Orochimaru snarled at the blonde-haired boy who dropped to the ground right next to Jiraiya. "Damn puff wanted me to stick my sword up his ass." Jiraiya put on a disgusted face. "Did you escape…unharmed?" "Yeah, but I think I might be mentally scarred now." "That's okay, just remember, anal virginity is the most important thing to any straight man who comes across a gay man. For added effect, clench your ass together so they can't get in." Naruto began noting this down while Jiraiya lectured. From the corner of his eye, he saw Orochimaru running away. "Should we go after him?" Jiraiya shook his head. "No. his career as a ninja is over. If he's lucky, he may end up as the demented product in someone's fanfic."

"Right-o. Should we go check on Tsunade then?" "That's probably a good idea."

Needless to say, Tsunade wasn't exactly pleased about being left out of the fight, but wasn't too proud to not accept help.

"What are you doing here, Jiraiya, and who's the brat?" They were sitting in a restaurant, with Tsunade, her assistant Shizune, and a pink pig named Tonton.

Jiraiya took a sip of sake before answering, "The brat is Uzumaki Naruto. The reason why we're here is to bring you back to Konoha to be the next hokage."

Tsunade snorted derisively, "Hokage? Why the hell would I want that job? It's a load of shite anyways. Totally worthless." Naruto narrowed his eyes. "And what about the Third?"

The medic nin seemed to miss the dangerous lilt inNaruto's voice. "he was a decent old man, but like I said. It's a shite job. Why bother wasting your life for someone who doesn't appreciate it."

Naruto growled and slammed his hand on the table, cracking the heavy oak. Tsunade looked at the crack with some surprise. "I don't know where you get off talking about the Third like that, or saying the job of Hokage is crap! All I know is that you're wrong, and I have no problem beating that notion into you!"

Tsunade laughed out loud, "You really think you could beat me, kid? Fine, we'll fight."

The two of them headed outside, with two very nervous people and a scared pig behind them.

Naruto stared at the woman in front of him. she had insulted not only the Third, who was the first person to be nice to him, but also the title of the job that he wanted. Shifting his feet, he laid his right hand on the hilt of his sword, while holding his left hand out in front of him, beckoning her to him.

She charged, fist stretched behind her. Naruto spun, unsheathing his sword. His backhand swing and her fist met at exactly the same moment.

-GONG-

Kyuubi no giri vibrated badly in Naruto's grip, but he held on, determined not to lose. Shifting his feet, he spun again, this time to the other side, where again fist and steel met.

-GONG-

The fight went on and on like that, and Naruto's arm had lost all feeling due to the constant vibrations. Gritting his teeth, he ducked under a punch, back-flipping a good distance away, before sending some standard cutting winds at her.

Tsunade had no idea what the jutsu he had used was, so, to be safe, she simply jumped over them. It was a good thing, too, as she saw the ground develop several scars, sending shards of rock flying into the air.

Coming down from her jump, Tsunade punched the ground, sending a shockwave towards Naruto. The boy was unable to dodge in time, and the wave hit him full force, sending him flying through the air to impact against a tree. He was unconscious.

Tsunade stared at his limp body before saying, "Jiraiya, tell the boy that if he can master Arashi's signature technique in a week, I will go to Konoha with him." Jiraiya simply nodded. "Good. Shizune, find us a hotel to stay at. Book it for a week."

With that Tsunade of the sannin took her leave.

Jiraiya frowned, before picking up Naruto and carrying him to their campsite.

Naruto groaned as he woke, blinking his bleary eyes against the bright sun. "What the hell?"

"Oh, good, you're up. How are you feeling?" recognizing the voice of his adopted sensei, Naruto gave a short barking augh as he came to an upright position. "I got my ass kicked and lost us the only opportunity to get Tsunade to the village. How do you think I feel?"

"Sure, you lost the fight, but not the only opportunity to bring her back. She basically gave us a bet. If I can have you master a jutsu in a week, she will come with us to Konoha."

Naruto looked startled, "What jutsu?" Jiraiya grinned. "The Hiraishin no jutsu."

"Thunder god technique? What the hell does that do?" "It's a technique that rolls ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu all together. Basically, when you form the seals, you push chakra throughout your whole body. When you move, you appear to be moving in whatever color the jutsu associates you with. For the fourth, it was yellow, because of his hair. For you, I would say red, or blue, but we'll see. Anyways, when using this technique, you can use weapons, or even a rasengan. However, if you were to use the rasengan against several opponents, we would need to increase the speed in which you form one."

"Which is harder?" "Using the rasengan with the Hiraishin. You weed need to do double training. Which means 18-20 hour training days." Naruto bit his lip, "I can try and do that. Kyuubi will have to use his chakra to replace sleep, however. Hold on, I'll ask him."

_Kyuubi? Are you awake?_

_**Yeah, kid? What do you need?**_

I need to learn this technique in order to bring Tsunade back to the village to be hokage. However, it will require double training time, which means 18-20 hours of training. Could you replace my lack of sleep with your chakra? Not too much, though, I don't want it interfering with my techniques.

**It's possible, but very bad for you. At the end of the allotted time, you would have to sleep for the time missed. My chakra will keep you awake and alert, but it's like a genjutsu, it's only tricking your mind. Also, I will be widening your chakra pathways a bit, so you have more access to your chakra. This will make creating rasengans easier.**

Thanks fox. Gotta go now, time for training.

Coming back to the mortal world, Naruto said, "He said he'll do it, but at the end of the time limit, I'll be asleep for the length of time that I missed sleeping. So, if I have a week, and I normally sleep 8 hours, that means I'll be asleep a maximum of 56 hours. Not too bad for learning something as cool as this, I suppose. So what do we start with?"

Jiraiya formed the ram seal with his left hand. "This is the seal used to activate the technique. After activation, the seal no longer needs to be held unless you stop channeling your chakra. So, essentially, this jutsu is like the hole in a funnel, with the bowl being your chakra reserves. The bigger the bowl, the more chakra you have, and the longer you can use this technique. The fourth was able to hold it for 2 minutes. Judging from your current reserves, I'd say you can hold it for about a minute and 15 seconds. With kyuubi, that could possibly be extended to about 4 or 5 minutes, with multiple rasengans. Seeing as we can't start with the rasengan training until your pathways are growing at a constant rate, we'll work on the Hiraishin. Form the seal."

Naruto did as he was told, feeling his chakra start to build as he did so. "Okay, now, the concentration of your chakra will be centered in the trunk of your body. I want you to slowly spread the chakra around your whole body, like using a knife to spread butter on toast."

Naruto did so, and noticed that the pressure he had felt in him was lessened a great deal, and his limbs felt much stronger. "Done. What next?"

Jiraiya sat down and whipped out his notebook, writing down his pervers ideas. "Nothing. I want you to spend the rest of the day practicing doing what I've already taught you until you can do it in less than a second. When you've done that, we'll move on to using the jutsu, and controlling it. Now, get to work."

Groaning, Naruto did as he was told, summoning and spreading his chakra.

"So have you decided what to do?" Sakura nodded. "Yes. I'm going to aplogize to Naruto. He doesn't have to forgive me, I'll just be glad that I managed to show that I was sorry for my actions."

Ino stared at her friend, as if trying to detect any insincerity. She seemed to like what she found. "You've made a good choice. Now, let's get you something to eat, you look like a corpse."

Three weeks later, Sakura was looking much healthier, though still a little sickly. She had even started to take her training much more seriously, and managed to graduate early, though she was currently on the reserved list, as there were no teams for her.

It was during that time she came across a scroll in the library that talked about healing jutsus. Her interest had piqued, and so, got to work, soon finding great pleasure in her work.

Naruto summoned his chakra, almost at the same time spreading it throughout his body. Looking up, he saw the grinning face of his sensei. "Good job, you did it in .32 seconds. You managed to do it in one day, I'm impressed. Are you ready for the next part?"

Naruto nodded. His interest had tripled in this jutsu both due to the fourth using it, and the fact that he had considered the possible uses for this jutsu with kyuubi and was severely impressed.

"Good. Now, what I want you to do is project an image of where you want to go into your head, for now, let's just say that clearing about 50 meters to your right. Now, with that image in your mind, project your will to move your body there. Don't worry about trees or anything. When using this technique, your body enters almost a totally different space, to you, it will actually seem as if you're walking through the objects in your way. The only exception to this is anything that has chakra in it. Chakra itself exists on the same plane as this space, so if you run into, say Kyuubi no Giri, you will actually hit it, instead of passing through it. This means you can't go through people, especially ninja. Okay, you can try it now."

Naruto closed his eyes, concentrating on the clearing. Once he had a clear picture of it, he mentally pictured himself moving there. There was a single, almost imperceptible twinge of pressure, and the feeling of leaves and pine needles was gone, replaced with grass.

Opening his eyes, he saw himself standing in the middle of the clearing, a furrow in the ground behind him, the edges red-hot, distorting the atmosphere above them. Jiraiya appeared next to him an instant later, his face proud. "Congratulations, my boy. You have successfully completed the jutsu. It's far from being mastered, but we have a whole 'nother day for that." "What color was my flash?" Jiraiya grinned, "The same color as the Fourth's, yellow." Naruto grinned, before concentrating along the same path he had taken before. This time, though, he didn't close his eyes, and was shocked to notice that things around him seemed to form outside a tunnelthat he was moving through. His tunnel however was quite large in diameter, only diverging where Jiraiya stood, and where there were several summoning scrolls laying around.

Grinning, he moved forward, determined to master this technique.

It wasn't long before jiraiya stopped him and told him it was time for him to get better at creating the rasengan. "The advantage of learning to do this immediately is that if you're in hand to hand combat with an enemy, if you have a punch that misses by a narrow margin, you can create a rasengan and kill them quickly."

To prove his point Jiraiya instantly summoned a rasengan. It was so fast, it looked as if someone had simply put a rasengan in his hand. A second later, another joined the palm of his other hand. "When you can do this, with the Hiraishin, you've mastered the technique."

Naruto nodded. It was going to be extremely hard, but he could do it. If he was to surpass the other 'kage's, he would have to do it. Immeditaly, he set out practicing the rasengan.

Two days later, he had only managed to create two in about five seconds. He only had two days left until the bet was over, and he still wasn't fast enough. He couldn't ask Jiraiya for help, as the pervert had left to go 'gather research'. Naruto made a mental note to kill Jiraiya when the time came.

Glumly, he sat down in the grass. Staring at the thousands of green blades, he let his mind wander inadvertently to his previous fights. His mind froze when he saw Kiba's gatsuuga. _That's it!_

Jumping to his feet, he held out his hand while summoning his chakra. This time however, he began spinning his chakra _inside_ his chakra coils. The result was an instantaneous rasengan. Looking towards his other hand, he did the same thing. It was slower, seeing as his weak hand was his left, hand, but was still much faster than what he had managed to do before.

Grinning, he activated the hiraishin and moved through the tunnel. Raising his rasengans, he attacked two of the scrolls lying on the ground. The wind shredded them to confetti, and a burning gouge in the earth behind him signified his success.

**Yeah, yeah, I know, yo guys wanted me to kill Sakura off. I was actually seriously considering it before I found the manga and got a good look at the kind of person she is later on. At that point, I found it impossible to kill her off. Don't worry, Naruto won't immediately forgive her, but he won't outright ignore her either. Anyways, I'm sorry about taking s long for updates. I'm working on More Than Skin Deep next, but that will still probably be only 6 or 7 pages long, but it's going to end about chapter 20 or 25. just a little tidbit of info for you guys. **


	7. Chapter 7

The left hand of Kami

**Hurray! I'm still alive! I updated twice for More Than Skin Deep, so now, I'll update this, and then my Harry Potter story. Also, this will probably piss off a lot of you readers, but… I've decided to make Sakura part of the harem. it is my belief that this will help make the story flow better, as well as its placement as one of my favorite pairings on this site. Now, I really don't want any of you to stop reading this fic. I realized something while writing this. My first Naruto story is, like, 18 or 19 chapters long, three times the length of this one, but this one has more than half the reviews. THIS STORY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN MORE THAN SKIN DEEP! Also, remember what I said at the end of the last chapter, Naruto won't instantly forgive her, but he also won't ignore her. This includes the situation with the harem, which will probably form soon. The list for the girls in it are as follows:**

**Sakura**

**Tenten**

**Temari**

**Shizune**

**Ino**

**Yugao**

**Kin**

**Haku**

**Kurenai**

**Anko**

**Please note that this list is not organized by order of appearance. The harem will start with just one person, and then slowly grow. Anyways, enough with the ranting, onto the story.**

Jiraiya walked into the campground, completely oblivious to his impending doom. The moment his foot hit an unmarked barrier, a yellow flash appeared and kicked the super pervert high into the air. "That's for going away and not helping me, you ecchi bastard!" The man's scream slowly faded as he left the atmosphere.

**"**Damn kid, how'd you do that? I'm the only one that I know of who can do that." Naruto turned to see Tsunade and her assistant Shizune standing behind him, gazing at the rapidly growing speck that was Jiraiya.

"I just kicked him, nothing special." "You mean that was pure strength! What the hell are you?" Naruto chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head, "Well, I've been training for a while now, and I think I've gotten stronger." As he said this, Jiraiya came crashing to the ground, creating a huge crater, from which only two occasionally twitching hands could be seen.

Naruto grinned as he stood over the crater, "Learn your lesson, now, Ero-sennin?" a quiet sob sounded from the ground. "Good. Now maybe we can go about winning this bet."

Tsunade scoffed. "I highly doubt that you were able to master the Fourth's signature jutsu in just a week, brat." "Weapon or rasengan?" "Huh?"

"The jutsu, do you want it with weapons or rasengans?" Tsunade was beginning to sweat, but she kept up a brave face. "Do it with the rasengans."

Naruto nodded once before disappearing instantly, the only sign of his leaving being a bright yellow flash. An instant later, he reappeared in another flash. "Done."

"What the hell are you talking about? All you did was disapp…" She was cut off as she noticed the extreme heat waves beginning to fill the air.

An millisecond later, the area exploded as the ground erupted into molten earth and the trees exploded into a hail of splinters. Tsunade's mouth opened into an O as she stared at the carnage. Then, shaking her head, she turned and smiled at Naruto, before handing him her necklace. "As I promised, the necklace, and my becoming hokage, are yours." Naruto smiled and nodded.

_Arashi, you would be proud of your son._

The trip back was fairly uneventful, save for when they had to run from a hoard of women when, you guessed it, they caught Jiraiya peeping on them. That had earned the pervert both a verbal _and_ a physical flogging from Tsunade. What excited Naruto the most about the trip home was that tsunade was teaching him how to mimic her monstrous strength.

Ever since he and the kyuubi had partially merged, Naruto's chakra control had gone up, due to the effects of the chaotic chakra battling with his had gone down, and the two forces were starting to work together. It was this added control that allowed him to use the technique, towhich Tsunade said he would be hella powerful someday, simply due to the fact that he had such enormous chakra which could renew itself much faster than any normal humans'.

So far, he could punch the ground and create a crater three meters in diameter, so he had no trouble with the power. What he was really lacking was directional control. The power of his strike would be that much more powerful if only he could direct it in a specific location.

Upon entering Konoha, naruto was immediately assaulted by a brown and pink blur. "Naruto! Why couldn't you take me with you? You know Tsunade-sama's my number one idol!" Again, Naruto's speech was impaired by a pair of arms cutting off his air.

"Young lady, if you expect him to answer your question, letting him breathe might be a good idea." Tenten turned an annoyed face at the speaker, "Who are you to speak to me like…that… Tsunade –sama! Please, forgive me!" releasing a blue Naruto, she dropped to her knees and began cowtowing to the sannin. "Forgive me, please! I'll do anything you want!"

At that, Jiraiya got a small nosebleed, before scribbling furiously in his notebook. Tsunade turned an amused eye towards a slowly recovering Naruto, who simply waved at her to handle it. "What's your name, kunoichi?" "Tenten, Tsunade-sama. I am yours to command." Tsunade got an evil idea. "Fine. Then you are to go with Naruto on a date. As your hokage, I order you to have a good time." Tenten blinked, "Um, wasn't this supposed to be a punishment, not a reward?"

Tsunade chuckled, "Well, I figured anyone with enough sense to idol-worship me has to be pretty decent, so I'll let it pass. Like I said, my first order is for you to go on a date with Naruto. Now, Naruto, I have a task for you. Do you know of anybody in this village with really good chakra control?"

Naruto thought for a moment before replying, "Well, there's Sakura, and Haku, who's on my team. Possibly hinata, since she can see the chakra coils of a person, but that's all I know. Why?"

"I was thinking of recreating ninja cells to include a medic nin. Unfortunately, the job usually requires a good bit of chakra control, so, not a whole lot of people can do it. So, how many people do you have on your team right now?"

"Well there's Sasuke Uchiha, myself, Kakashi-sensei, and Haku. Sakura used to be on it." That puzzled Tsunade, "Why isn't she anymore?"

Naruto's face clouded, "I'd rather not talk about it." Sighing, Tsunade continued, "Anyways, from what you've told me, it sounds like your team is a powerhouse, at least with you and Sasuke. Am I correct?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, Sasuke and I usually do the close range fighting, while Haku hangs back and stabs people with her senbon needles." "Oh really, she any good at them?" "She can make a man fake his death with needles in the neck from over a hundered yards." "Not too shabby. I'll have to check the candidates out. In the meantime, I want you to take today and tomorrow off. Today, simply to realx, and tomorrow because that will be when your date with Tenten is."

Naruto grew confused, "Um, Tsunade-chan, why would you force Tenten to go out on a date with me for? I'd rather not order her into it." Tsunade gave a tired smile, "Naruto, someday, hopefully soon, you're going to figure some things out, and when you do, life will be just that much sweeter for you. Now go on, I have to meet with the council. First ordre of business, anti-pervert measures on all of the bathhouses!" turning she marched towards the Hokgae tower, a now-weeping Jiraiya right behind her.

Shaking his head disbelievingly, Naruto adjusted the strap of his bag and made his way home.

Tenten was excited. Not only did she get to meet the famous Tsunade, her idol, but she also got to go on a date with Naruto!. She was determined not to screw her chance up.

Her parents noticed her enthusiasm the moment she enteres the door. Kenji got a suspicious look on his face before asking, "What did you do this time?" tenten put on a mock hurt face, "Why father, I'm hurt that you are so distrustful of your own daughter! Whatever ave you the idea that I was such an ill-mannered child?"

Kenji deadpanned, "When Iruka sent home a note saying that put thumbtacks in his seat." Tenten laughed nervously, "Well… um… that was an isolated incident, nothing more." "Suuure. Anyways, what's got you so fired up?"

Tenten blushed. "I've got a date with Naruto-kun!" kenji raised an eyebrow, "The kid I was training, the one with the great sword?" "Yep! He just got back from his mission to collect Tsunade-sama so she can be the next Hokage."

"Interesting. Well, your mother and I approve of your decision. Personally, I don't think you could have chosen a better person. He's very special, that Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto was entirely bored from his day off. He had absolutely nothing to do, and random thoughts and ideas began popping into his head. That was when an idea hit him. He could write down his thoughts!

Grabbing a brush and an empty scroll, he immediately began to scribe down his ideas. Time flew by as he continued to work, his attention focused solely on the task at hand. He only stopped when his apartment grew too dark to work in. even then, as he lay inbed, the thoughts and ideas swarmed his mind, the flow only partially abated. Little did he know what the impact of this would be.

The next day, Naruto managed to put down the rest of his thoughts onto the scroll, sighing happily as he rolled it up. After checking the clock, he was surprised to note that he had skipped both breakfast and lunch to accomplish his goal. It was also at that time that he remembered that he had a date with tenten, and he had yet to make any plans or preparations for it. Groaning at his own stupidity, he dashed out the door, forgetting to lock it on his way out.

Kakashi was whistling quietly as he made his way towards Naruto's apartment. He had planned to help train the boy some today, maybe even possibly teach him the Chidori. This was, of course, because he didn't know that the boy had already mastered the rasengan.

Reaching up to knock on the shabby door, Kakashi noticed that the portal was slightly ajar. The copy-nin slowly pushed the door open with a single finger, as if afraid for his life. "Naruto, are you home?" When he was met with silence, Kakashi simply shrugged and walked in.

His first impression was that it was a great deal cleaner than when he had first seen it, which was when he was assigned his team. The second thing he noticed, just because it seemed out of place, was a scroll, with a brush and ink next to it.

Now, Kakashi normally abhorred the violation of other people's privacy, but he considered Naruto a special case. After all, it was a rare oppurtunty indeed to actually get inside the blond's head. Most were afraid to do it due to the boy's 'tenant'.

Opening the scroll, Kakashi began to scan the text. As he got farther along, his eye widened. Finally reaching a stopping point, he quckly slid the scroll closed before shoving it into one of the pockets in his vest and making his way to the Hokage's office.

Tsunade was visibly impressed when she finished reading the scroll, "This boy truly is remarkable. This would revolutionize so much, not to mention help my case. Kakashi, I have a mission for you. I want you to find Naruto, and ask him if this can be published. If he says yes, take it to all the publishers and see who will pay the most to print it. Also, don't accept anything less than 20 royalties for Naruto, is that understood?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama." Pocketing the scroll again, he disappeared in a shower of leaves.

Tsunade sighed and smiled as she stared out the windo of her office, "Naruto Uzumaki, you truly are the number one surprising ninja in all of Konoha."

Naruto was just walking out of a jewelry store when Kakashi fazed right next to him. "Oh, hey Kakashi-sensei. What are you doing here?" kakashi's eye turned into a 'U'.

"Well, I was originally looking to see if you wanted to train, but something else has taken precedence. When I stopped by your apartment, I noticed you weren't there. However, I did see this,"he fished out the scroll and showed it to Naruto, "after reading a little of it, I took it to the hokage, and she thought that you should publish it."

"Publish it? Why? It's just a random collection of my thoughts on different subjects." Kakashi was dumbfounded. "Naruto, do you have any of what a deal this is? your random collection of thoughts and ideas coalesced themselves into a single coherent manuscript. Your ideas in here are completely revolutionary, and could change konoha for the better, exponentially. So I'm asking you this now, will you let it be published?"

Naruto was shocke. He had never seen his sensei like this, begging to be allowed to do something. "Fine, go ahead, but I'm telling you now, it'll probably be rejected."

Kakashi decided not to respond to that, he simply continued on with his mission.

The copy-nin was in luck. After reading the manuscript, the very first publisher totally ignored the name of the author and immediately offered 40 royalties, with the promise of future books. Kakashi said that he couldn't promise the latter, but he would do all in his power to make it so. Nevertheless, the publisher went with it, saying that things in life were never truly certain.

Later that day, the first copies of _The Shinobi Handbook _hit the shelves. Within a day, they would be completely sold out.

Naruto stood nervously outside Tenten's door. He was dressed smartly in loose black slacks, with a black sports jacket and an open-necked white shirt. Held in his right hand was a bouqet of flowers, of a variety that went by the name "kunai leaf", the reason behind this being the steel-grey petals of the flowers, shaped like kunai. Naruto figured they would be appropriate for someone who focused so heavily on weapons.

He began to sweat profusely when the front door of the shop opened to expel tenten.

His breath hitched when he saw her. She was wearing a red silk kimono, with green and gold floral patterns wrapping around her waist, up her chest, and over her right shoulder. She had very little makeup on, just enough to accent what was already there. She had taken her hair out of her buns and had arranged into another, larger bun, held together by two red chopsticks that looked suspiciously sharp.

She smiled slightly when she saw him, "So, what do you think?" "Uh…uh…well, damn." She giggled lightly, "So I take it that you approve?" "Guh…damn straight. Oh crap, I almost forgot, these are for you!"

He brought the flowers forward, and noticed the way her eyes lit up when she saw them. She squealed, grabbing the flowers and holding them to herself. "these are my favorite, how did you know?" "uh…lucky guess."

After Tenten put the flowers in some water, she grabbed Naruto's arm as he led her through the village.

Soon, though, she began to get confused. Naruto was walking past all of the restaurants in the village, even his ramen stand. "Um, Naruto-kun, where exactly are we going?" The blonde smiled mysteriously. "You'll see. It's one of the places I like to go when I have a lot on my mind."

After another five minutes, they entered a heavily wooded forest. The forest didn't last long, though, before breaking away to reveal the top of the hokage monument.

Tenten gasped. The sight was…beautiful. The lights of konoha, mixed in with the moon and stars of the sky made the area seem so enchanting.

Naruto gently led her to the edge of the cliff, where a picnic basket was waiting. Unfolding and spreading a blanket, he sat down next to Tenten and handed her a plate. She smiled amusedly, "So, dear sir, what would be on the menu tonight?"

Naruto smirked. "Tonight we have beef kabobs, daango puddings, homemade stir-fry, fried and steamed rice, non-alcoholic wine, and for dessert, a chocolate cake."

Tenten gaped at him, "Where on earth did you get all of this food?" Naruto chuckled, "Well, I got everything but the wine from my own recipes. The wine I got from obaa-chan when I asked her."

Tenten's eye twitched at the nickname he had given the fifth hokage, but decided to let it go. "you made all of this yourself?" "Well yeah. Even though I eat ramen a lot, I had to learn to cook at a young age in order to feed myself. Soon, though, I found myself enjoying it more and more, though I rarely get a chance to practice."

Unsure of the food, due to the boy's admitte negligence in practicing, Tenten nonetheless grabbed a kabob and tentatively bit into it. Her eyes widened immediately. "my good kami! This is…delicious!" Nauto smiled, "Well, I'm glad you like it. I just hope the rest of my cooking gets the same review."

It did. In fact, all of the food Naruto had made was gone fairly quickly. The blonde was amazed at the sheer amount Tenten could eat, while still maintaining her slim figure. When the food was done, Naruto summoned a few clones to pick up the mess, while he led Tenten by the arm and walked her to her house. Along the way, they made simple small talk, before arriving at tenten's house.

The girl looked fairly nervous as she turned to face Naruto. "Thank you for a wonderful night, Naruto-kun. I've had the most fun ever in my entire life." Naruto grinned, "Glad to be of service, ma'am." Tenten rolled her eyes, but had a slight smile on her lips.

"Well, I suppose I should head on in,… but first, I'll need something from you." "Eh? What could I have that you would need, Tenten?" "First of all, call me Ten-chan. And secondly, this…"

Before naruto could react, she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss. Naruto was shocked at first, but eventually gave in, his eyes closing as he deepened the kiss.

Tenten was bursting inside as she finally managed to kiss the boy she'd been admiring for quite a while now. She noted that he tasted slightly like pork ramen, but that was okay with her.

Naruto, on the other hand, found that Tenten tasted like a spicy meat, one which he was unable to place. He didn't let it deter him, though. He just figured that he would have to get more practice in until he was able to figure out what the taste was. Judging from his date's reaction so far, he didn't think she would mind.

After a minute or so, the two broke away, gasping for air. Naruto, as usual, was the first to recover. "Wow, that was great." Tenten, her face flushed, giggled, "I'm glad you liked it, Naru-kun. However, I have to get to bed. But I tell you what, I'll let you practice some more tomorrow, okay?"

Naruto nodded eagerly, before kissing her on the cheek an heading off with a rather loud and enthusiastic good-bye.

I know I said I was making the chapters long, but I'm having trouble thinking of what to do with this chapter, so I decided to end it here. I'm sorry if you were expecting more, but it's almost midnight here, and I need to get to bed cuz I'm tired.

**My thanks to those reviewers who have provided advice and compliments. They allow me to become as good a writer as I need to be. Seriously, you guys are what's eeping me going. My thanks to you,**

**Soulthief 2 **


	8. Chapter 8

The left hand of kami

Chapter 8

**Yo! It's me again, back with another update for y'all. I humbly thank you all for your great reviews, though I did get a few reviews asking me why I didn't put Hinata in the harem. this is for the simple fact that there are far too many Naru/hina pairings out there. Now, granted, I know that this is a harem, but still, it's the principle of the matter. Now, if you want to see some naru/hina, read my other story, Naruto: More than skin deep. I have a good naru/hina fluff scene in there, so maybe that will sate your thirst for that pairing. Still, I'm a bit sorry for that short chapter before. I went to bed at midnight, and was asleep until noon today. (today being the day after posting chapter 7.) now, I thank whichever reviewer left ideas as to what could have made the chapter longer, but for right now, I think that's good. Anyways, you readers get to see what naruto has written that will be so revolutionaryto Konoha. I based it off of something I had going through my head ever since I started this whole fic regarding the hokage's.**

Naruto woke the next day feeling better than he ever had before. Yawning, he got out of bed and stretched. Groaning as he heard joints and tendons pop.

After a quicke breakfast of ramen with toast and orange juice, he left his apartment, this time making sure to lock it behind him. today he had an inter-team practice with the other rookie nine, and he didn't want to be late. Unfortunately, he couldn't use his hiraishin to get there, as it would tear up the ground behind him, so he had to rely solely on speed.

Flashing through the village, his sword on his back, he made quite the image on the villagers, some of whom still threw him some rather rude gestures. He ignored them and continued on towards the training fields.

When he got there, the other teams had already arrived. Grinning, he pushed off extra hard against a building putting a small imprint into the stone and launched himself into the air. Spinning and twisting, he landed cat-like on the ground, ignoring the craters he created when he had landed.

"Time." Naruto looked up to see Kakashi staring at a stopwatch. "You're right on time, Naruto. Congratulations." Naruto scoffed, "Like you have any room to talk, Kakashi-sensei, you're always late."

The masked nin put on a hurt tone, "I'm not today though, that's got to count for something!" "I suppose," Kakashi's eye smiled, but Naruto wasn't finished, "That miracles _do_ happen."

Grinning at his now-sobbing sensei, Naruto turned to the others, smiling as he did. His smile died, though when he saw Sakura. Despite her now-improved eating habits, she was still dangerously thin, and she had bags under her eyes. He was about to ask her what happened, when he was attacked by a now-familiar blur. "Naruto-kun!"

Instead of finding himself being strangled to death, this time he was in a fierce lip-lock with the weapons mistress. Breaking off, he grinned, "Well that's quite a hello. How are you, Ten-chan?" she smiled, "Wonderful. Thank you again for last night, Naruto-kun, I'd like to do it again." Naruto grinned, "So would I."

"Um, what exactly is going on here?" Naruto turned to face a very angry Temari. "Well, when I got back from retrieving the new hokage, tenten accidentally bad-mouthed her, and so, the hokage, as punishment, made her go out on a date with me." "Really?" Temari slowly began to plot ways to insult the hokage.

"Alright, that' enough chat, it's time for training. First, we'll start with sparring. Let's see," Kakashi and the other jounin conversed among themselves via huddle-style. After a few minutes, they came up and Asuma said, "Alright, the pairings for the sparring will be Gaara vs. Sasuke, Hinata vs. Sakura, Temari vs. Kiba, Tenten vs. Ino, Neji vs. Lee, Haku vs. Shino, Shikamaru vs. Chouji, Kankurou vs. myself, and Naruto vs. Kakashi."

Naruto grinned like a cheshire cat. He finally got to test the full extent of his abilities. The others prepared themselves as the individual battles started with Sasuke and Gaara.

Sasuke and Gaara's fight 

The two nins faced each other, calmly regarding their opponent. A gentle breeze blew through the area, and the two launched at the other.

Sasuke opened up with a flying spin kick, which was blocked by Gaara's defense. Gaara himself responded with a kick of his own, a high one that connected with Sasuke's chin, launching him into the air. It wasn't nearly as powerful as Naruto's or Lee's, but it still hurt.

While still in the air, Sasuke flipped through several handseals, ending in "katon: Housenka no jutsu!"

Several small fireballs launched out of Sasuke's mouth towards Gaara. The former sand nin's defense went up, but was flash-burned into glass. Scowling, Gaar launched several shuriken at Sasuke, a few of which nicked his arm. Landing, Sasuke activated his sharingan and went into the chidori. Gaara didn't even flinch, but put up a huge wall of sand in front of himself.

The chidori connected with a bright flash, and started to tunnel into the wall. After a few seconds, though, Sasuke ran out of chakra, and collapsed to the ground, his arm smoking. Gaara was in a similar state, his stamina having been spent after stopping the force of nature known as chidori.

Kurenai stepped forward to announce the results. "The match is a draw, as neither fighter is able to continue on. The next match will now begin."

Sakura vs. Hinata 

The two kunoichi simply looked at each other. Hinata in disappointment, and Sakura in a mix of fear and apathy. "Why did you do it?"

Hinata's question startled Sakura, but she answered anyways. "At the time, I was blinded by a childish crush. I didn't realize how important he was to our team or this village. I only looked at his negative sides, while ignoring his positive sides. I realized my mistake shortly after my sentence, and so I worked extra hard to bring myself back to the level of genin. I went to the new hokage and told her the story. Fortunately, she allowed me to come back as a genin, which is why I'm here now."

Hinata still didn't back down. "So, it took you nearly losing your whole career to see something that the rest of us saw right from the very beginning? Was it only when _you_ were in danger that you acknowledged him?"

Sakura winced. "Both yes and no. I knew that he had those traits beforehand, but I chose to ignore them to fawn after Sasuke."

Hinata simply stared at her before nodding. "Good enough. Shall we get started?"

Sakura drew two kunai and held them in a backhand grip, crouching in her preferred style of taijutsu. Hinata got in her own stance before charging. The Hyuuga girl was too fast, but Sakura managed to turn a possibly debilitating blow into a more harmless strike to her shoulder. Sakura wasn't out of the picture though, as she shved up with that same shoulder, knocking the wind out of Hinata. Still in her crouch, sakura spun, kicking the legs out from under the girl. Spinning quickly, Sakura brought one of her kunai to rest lightly n the neck of Hinata. The hyuuga girl smiled slightly. "Very sneaky, but I applaud the improvisation. Very Naruto-like."

"Winner, Sakura Haruno."

When Hinata made her way back from the field, Kiba came up to her. "What did you throw the match for? You could have beaten her easily." Hinata smiled. "There are some victories that are won off of the battlefield, Kiba-kun."

Temari vs. Kiba 

Kiba and Akamaru instantly used their beast mimicry and attacked Temari. The sand girl was prepared though, as she used her fan to blow her up into the air over Kiba's attack. From there she sent a kamataichi at the dog boy. Dodging the deadly wind, kiba launched Akamaru into the air, wh managed to get his chompers on the end of Temari's fan. Then Akamaru disappeared to show Kiba chewing on the fan.

At this point Gaara leaned over to naruto and said, "He's dead. Never mess with Temari's fan." Naruto could only agree a few seconds later when temari descended and began to pound Kiba into the ground.

Tenten vs. Ino 

Tenten dislodged herself from her boyfriend's arm and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before running off into the field to face Ino.

Ino smirked, "Be careful Tenten, you make being his girlfriend look good enough to kill for." Tenten smiled. "That's because it is, Ino."

The blonde girl got an interested look on her face. "Oh really? Then how about a little wager? Whoever wins this match gets to be the girlfriend of Naruto for a week. If he likes one over the other, he can choose then. However, he also has to treat that other as he would any other girlfriend. This includes dates, kissing, etc."

Tenten was confident she would win, so she didn't think twice about the offer. "Deal. Now let's get going."

She started off the match by launching several kunai at ino, who blocked them all before responding with one of her own. Tenten caught the projectile, only to notice the explosive tag on it. Quickly, she threw it away before it exploded. Unfortunately, this drew her attention away from Ino, who got a hard punch into Tenten's stomach.

Her lungs suddenly devoid of air, Tenten fought to maintain consciousness. She held on just long enough to smack Ino upside the head with a concealed blackjack.

"The match is a draw."

The fights continued wuth Haku, Lee, Asuma, and Shikamaru winning their duels. Then finally the time came for Naruto and Kakashi's fight.

Kakashi right off the bat revealed his Sharingan and put away his book. Naruto was more than a little surprised. "Why do you have the eye out already, kakashi sensei?"

The silver-haire jounin chuckled, "I have a feeling I'll need it today, Naruto." Kakashi then drew his old ANBU sword from behind his back. "You're not the only one who knows how to use a sword here, Naruto."

The fox boy grinned, before drawing out his own blade. "Fine then, let's see how your blade holds up to the kyuubi no giri." Naruto channeled chakra through his sword before bringing it crashing down into the ground, while at the same time releasing the chakra. A huge crack appeared at the point of impact, before spreading quickly to where Kakashi was standing. Wide-eyed, kakashi jumped over the crack, only to be hit by the kick of a shadow clone.

Kakashi quickly tried to regain his balance as he landed, doing so just in time to intercept a strike from the kyuubi no giri. The fox on the blade seemed to laugh at him as he reinforced the steel of his sword with his chakra. Throwing the far heavier blade off, Kakashi swung around with a backhand grip.

Naruto rolled from the strike, leaping into the air at the end of his roll and thrwing a kunai at his sensei. Kakashi deflected the projectile, and ran after Naruto. Naruto blocked the initial strike, but due to the sizee and weight of his sword, was unable to block the three additional strikes to his stomach. Fortunately, they didn't break skin, but they came damn close.

Naruto decided to uncover one of his trump cards. Quickly forming a handseal, he gathered chakra before slashing his sword as fast as he could towards his sensei. Kakashi knew enough to jump out of the way, just before the ground he was formerly standing on was chewed apart in a hail of dirt and stone chips. The slashes followed him wherever he went, though, and Naruto ended the technique just as one of the sonic wind blades cut Kakashi's heel. Kakashi understandably became a little upset.

"Naruto! Dammit, that hurt!" "Sorry sensei!" Kakashi scowled before charging Naruto at his full speed. Naruto felt the impact like a freight train, and his grip on Kyuubi no giri slipped as he slammed into a tree.

The others were shocked at the brutality of the attack, but kakashi didn't seem to pay any mind. "Come on, Naruto, you can take much more than that, get up."

The heap on the ground began to chuckle. "You're right, kakashi-sensei. I really wanted to save this technique for later, but I suppose now is as good a time as any to use it."

Naruto formed a seal, one which made all of the present jounin's eyes widen. Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he tensed his body. In a single yellow flash, naruto disappeared. Kakashi was prepeared though, after all, his sensei was the fourth. A quick Kawamiri, and a huge log was torn to shreds when Naruto appeared in front of it, rasengan in hand. The appearance of the jutsu in Naruto's hand was another shock.

Ino and Tenten regained consciousness just as Naruto destroyed the log. The instant they were awake, they turned to face each other. "Who won?" they asked in stereo. Gaara answered their question, "It was a draw, you knocked each other out."

Oops. That could be a problem.

Naruto smirked as the chips of wood fell to the ground. "Come on Kakashi-sensei, you can do better than that."

As if in response to his taunt, a Chidori-charged Kakashi ran at Naruto. Due to the speed at which Kakashi was moving, those who knew about the technique could only watch in horror as the nin closed in on the blonde. However, Naruto was ready.

Grabbing Kyuubi no giri, he charged up his chakra, before making some familiar handseals.

"Sword element- Shadow sword heavenly slice!"

Again, his sword split into nine swords, each hanging in mid air. Naruto braced himself for what was about to happen next.

Kakashi and his student connected. Naruto took the Chidori to the gut, grunting as pain filled his torso. Kakashi just stared at him in shock, his hand still inside his student. Naruto grinned, "Never let your guard down, Kakashi-sensei!" With that, Naruto pulled the arm out of himself and threw his sensei into the ring of swords, jumping to the first as he did so.

Nine strikes later, a battered Kakashi fell to the ground, followed by a bruised, bleeding, and exhausted Naruto. "You win, kakashi-sensei, I used too much chakra in that last maneuver."

Kakashi groaned, but managed to bring himself to a standing position. "Naruto you could have easily killed me with that technique."

The blonde chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. The hole in his stomach where kakashi had stabbed him was quickly healing, the red chakra rising from the wound like steam. "Nah, I couldn't Kakashi-sensei. Right now I barely have enough chakra to stand. If you'd been with a team, I would be dead or captured by now."

Kakashi was startled by his students observation, but didn't show it. "ah, but I didn't have a team, so the usual rules don't apply." "Fair. Alright, so what's next?"

Neji gaped at the by before activating his Byakugan. He let out a little squeak when he saw what was going on. Naruto's chakra pathways were larger than normal, thus allowing more chakra to pass through, but that wasn't what startled Neji. At the very core of Naruto's chakra system was a giant orange and red flame. Chakra was pumping from the flame into Naruto's system, slowly turning blue as it did. The weirdest part of the flame was that it almost had a face to it, vaguely resembling a fox…

_That's strange. The flame in his stomach is producing chakra and distributing it throughout Naruto's system, causing him to recover much faster, but what about the healing? What could cause that? normally, I would think it a bloodline, but that flame is no bloodline. Only living things and spirits can produce chakra. Could it be that there is something sealed in Naruto?_

"Naruto, what's that red chakra in your stomach, what do you have sealed in you?" Naruto froze. Kakashi looked startled. "How did you find out…"

"My Byakugan can see chakra. Naruto has a source inside him that isn't in the normal chakra production area, and it's filling him with chakra that slowly turns to the color of his own chakra. The only things that can produce chakra are living things and spirits. Living things can only be sealed into inanimate objects, such as scrolls, so that leaves spirits. What do you have sealed in you?"

Naruto's cheerful exterior dissolved and his face became serious and unfeeling. "Do you really want to know? All of you?" "Naruto…" Kakashi warned.

"Don't bother sensei, thay would have found out at some point. At least this way, they won't get the wrong story from a drunken villager or something." "Fine, after all, the law doesn't apply to you."

Naruto turned to the group of nins assembled there, but he avoided their gaze. "Thirteen years ago, as you all know, Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox attacked Konoha." That simple sentence allowed Shiamaru, Sasuke, and Neji to put the clues together instantly, but they stayed silent. "hundreds of nins were lost. The fourth, as you've been taught, somehow killed the fox, but lost his life in the process. That was a lie. The fourth was unable to kill the fox, so, instead, he sealed it into a newborn child, whose chakra pathways had yet to solidify. Thus, the child's pathways would be able to mold to fit the force of the kyuubi."

He took a breath, before resuming. "It was the fourth's wish for the child to be seen as a hero for his sacrifice to the village. After all, that was what people like that were called, Jinchuuriki, 'human sacrifice'. However, the villagers, in their ignorance, decided to alienate the child, and, when he was four years old, was sent to live by himself in an apartment. He had no parents, his mother died in childbirth, and his father was dead fighting the kyuubi. After meeting the hokage when he was five, the boy found that to be hokage meant being recognized as the strongest. The boy didn't wish to be seen as the strongest, but he did want to be acknowledged. So, the boy trained himself, day and night, so that he would be able to accomplish his goal. However, upon entering the ninja academy, he discovered that the others were far ahead of him, having been taught by their families before coming to the academy. So he struggled, trying to stay with the class. It didn't help that his chakra was chaotic, what with the interference of the kyuubi in him, disrupting his pathways."

Naruto paused, but the others, too engrossed in the story, said nothing. Kakashi's hands were shaking though, as if reliving some particularly bad memories. "The boy ended up as the last of his class, the 'dead-last' if you will. He failed the test to become a genin. However, he was told by one of his teachers that if he stole the scroll of sealing in the hokage's office, and learned just one technique, then he could graduate. The boy was tricked, however, and he and his other teacher were attacked by the lieing traitor. Just as his teacher was about to be killed, the boy employed the technique he had learned from the scroll, his one particular weakness. He defeated the chuunin, and was finally recognized by someone."

" The next day, he met his team and sensei. At first, he didn't like his sensei, and felt that he was weak. But, after passing the true genin exam, his views changed. He now respected his team. After several d-rank missions, the team finally got their first c-rank. They were to escort a man to the country of waves, and protect him while he built his bridge. The man had lied to them, tough, after they had survived an ambush. Yet, the team still carried on, determined not to fail the mission.

Then they were attacked by a jounin, who captured their sensei. Working together, the boy and his rival managed to make the jounin release their sensei, who defeated the jounin. But the jounin escaped with his apprentice.

The team then spent the next week or so training, in case they were ever attacked. After a week, the boy had completed an exercise, but, being the fool he was, had exhausted himself and slept in. he woke up just in time to save the daughter of the man he was protecting from two samurai. From there, he joined his teammates in the battle on the bridge.

Unfortunately, after the battle. The boy was captured. For days he was tortured, simply for the fun of it. The healing power of his second chakra, the fox's chakra, soon was spent. The chakra still healedthe wounds, but the amount was insufficient to make the scars go away. The boy then met the demon for the first time, in his mind. It wasn't what he expected. The demon was not a bloodthirsty animal, as he had been led to believe. Instead, it was quite civil. The two struck up a deal to help each other, and the boy was able to escape, after killing the man who had him tortured.

Upon returning to his team, he had found that on the whole, he was welcomed back enthusiastically. However, one of his teammates felt that he had simply faked the ordeal, simply to gain attention. The teammate was kicked off the team. Then came the chuunin exams. The boy and his new team passed the first two with flying colors. Then came the third, where he was underestimated. He defeated his oppoenent in the prelims easily. During the month long break before the finals, he found himself two trainers. One was the now former missing-nin that had ttacked he and his team on the bridge, and the other was one of the legendary sage ninjas. It was then that he received one of his greatest gifts yet, the kyubi no giri. The boy managed to win the tournament in the chuunin exams, but then his village was attacked by the sand and sound.

It was here that the first person who had ever been nice to him, the Sandaime, died."

Naruto's voice choked a little, but he went on, "The boy's mentor, the sage, was given a mission to retrieve the next hokage, tsunade of the sannin. The sage requested that the boy come along too, and together the both of them made their way out. After several weeks, they eventually found her, in a battle against the man who had killed the sandaime, the rogue nin Orochimaru. Here, the boy killed Orochimaru's sidekick, and with his sensei, ran off the snake sannin himself.

Tsunade after the fight agreed to become hokage only if the boy could master the fourth's signature technique in a week. It was hard for the boy, he pushed himself to his absolute limits, but got far stronger for it. He successfully completed his mission and nowstands here today."

Naruto looked up apprehensively. "That boy was me."

Tsunade sighed as she put the crystal ball away. She had hoped that Naruto's friends and teammates would never have to find out what was inside him, but, as she found now, that was simply an old woman's wish.

Groaning, she turned back to the huge pile of paperwork on her desk. Just as she was about to burst into tears, she noticed a rectangular object wrapped in brown paperon her desk.

Grabbing it, shestared at the label.

"To Tsunade-baba, from, Naruto"

Rolling her eyes, she tore off the wrapping paper, to reveal naruto's book.

_The shinobi handbook. _Tsunade opened it to the table of contents, which read:

Chapter 1 introduction

Chapter 2 Academy life

Chapter 3 becoming a genin( or how to do the academy jutsus)

Chapter 4 History lessons

Chapter 5 the chuunin exams

Chapter 6 Working as a team

Chapter 7 Friends among enemies (or having friends in different villages)

Chapter 8 training tips

Chapter 9 good nutrition

Chapter 10 Becoming hokage

Chapter 11 Hokage's business (or how not to go insane due to paperwork)

Tsunade, curious, opened up to the Hokage chapter.

Being Hokage is a tireless and often thankless job. I should know, I have been close friends with two of them. The biggest pain that they complain about is paperwork. Now, we all know that the hokage's are the strongest, right? Now, why haven't the hokage's ever used a jutsu like Kage Bunshin to help get the paperwork done? Surely, that would speed things up! It certainly helps me when I clean my apartment!

Now, when Hokage's battle, they have no need for flashy moves… 

Tsunade just stared at the book before… "WHAT THE HELL! WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT!"

Naruto stared at the faces of his companions. They held either shock, disbelief, or anger. The last emotion truly frightened Naruto. "I guess you all hate me now, huh?" No one answered. Naruto sighed, before making his seal again and flashing off.

The flash drove the others ot of their stupor. "What the hell?" Exclaimed Kiba. Neji frowned. "It seems we have just learned much about Naruto. He must have been nervous about our reaction, and, upon seeing it, got scared and ran off."

Kakashi walked up to the group. "Well, then, you'd better find him. he might do something drastic. You guys are the only people save for few others who have been with naruto and seen what he's really like. There's no telling what he might do if he thinks you guys hate hi now. He might just kill himself."

Tenten, Ino, Temari, Haku, and Sakura took off immediatey, the boys a half second behind them.

Iruka walked into his classroom to notice something very odd.

His students were actually studying.

But they weren't studying the standard textbook, no. they were reading what looked to be a handbook of some kind. Moving to his desk, he found that he had a copy of it himself.

He scanned the table of contents before stopping on the academy chapter.

I don't have a whole lot of fond memories of the academy. I suppose my only one would be when my sensei Iruka finally acknowledged me. However, I d have a lot of experience in whatthe academy is lacking in. I've been taught by two jounin, two sannin, a 'friend', and my teammates. So far, what we've discovered is… the academy is shite. It's all well and good to be learning things on a theoretical and practice level, but when it comes to actual combat, it's no good. I froze up on my very first c-rank mission, simply because I wasn't used to having my life on the line.

_The Academy needs to step up in its teachings. They need to teach things such as chakra control, multiple weapon use, tactics, those kind of things. Give 'em what they need, diversity. Let 'em join a joint team mission, so they get the experience they need to not freeze up in te field. Do this, and our genin will be even stronger. We need to stop relying on our geniuses to pull us out of everything. Instead, we should make hard workers the backbone of our forces, as they know to neer give up, whereas geniuses tend to have things handed to them, never having to break more than a minor sweat. _

Iruka smiled when he saw who the author was, and he turned to his class. "alright class, it's time we do something a bit different. Follow me outside. We are going to meetwith one maito Gai, who will teach you about different styles of taijutsu."

Indeed, the future konoha nins were to be well-prepared, all thanks to a former dobe.

The oys were searching all throughout the village, but tenten had a good idea where her boyfriend would be. Putting on a burst of speed, she made her way to the hokage monument, the other girls close behind her.

Indeed, he was there. The loveable blonde was sitting on the edge, his feet dangling down, just above the fourth's head. "You guys come here to kill me or something?" His tone was much different. No longe was it the jovial, excited tone he usually had. It was flat, all excitement and happiness gone, making him seem like a monotonous robot.

Tenten huffed, before walking up to her boyfriend and hugging him from behind. "What the hell are you talking about, Naruto-kun? We could never hate you. Especially me. I love you."

Naruto stiffened, before something seemed to catch in his throat. Tenten just held him softly speaking in his ear, before she was joined by Ino, who threw her a just-try-and-stop-me look. Together, the two of them held their hero as his choking finally subsided into tears.

Haku watched, her heart panging in sadness. She had no way of competing with those two. Temari and Sakura seemed to think the same thing, as their expressions had a lok of forlornment on them. Owever, she kept up a brave face, determined not to show her crush that she was weak.

**Yosh! I have completed this chapter! Sorry it took so long, but I've been having to do it by piecemeal, as my computer is often limited, and I have very specific urges for when I write. Next chapter won't be for a while, but I hoe you like this longer than ever before one! Soulthief2 out!**


	9. Chapter 9

Yo! I'm sorry, I know you all were hoping for another story update, but this is simply to inform you all that I've started a forum for The left hand of kami, and you are all welcome to join in if you want. The link can be found on my profile page. The first topic is critiques, but if you guys want any other topics to go up, feel free.

**-Soulthief2**


	10. Chapter 10

The Left Hand of Kami

Chapter ?

**Ugh, so…tired. I've been extremely busy at school, with 3 AP classes, plus the swim season has started, as well as bagpipes, so my opportunities to write are getting shorter and shorter. Now if my parents could see the light and invest in a laptop for me…. But alas, it is not meant to be. Whatever, someday, I will have my revenge…perhaps another gag gift about my dad's age…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, if I did, it would no likely be crappy, and Naruto would be a pimp, and have tons of girls. Which is why I'm writing Fanfiction. That, and Mashashi Kishimoto-san refuses to return my calls about pairings in Naruto. But that's okay, I have pictures of him plotting his conquering of the world. Soon, very very soon, Naruto will belong to me…**

**Itachi: you're insane**

**Soulthief2: You're one to talk, you killed your entire clan.**

**Itachi: I deny those claims! I was framed by the flying monkeys!**

**Soulthief2: No you weren't I have evidence that the flying monkeys were busy at that time helping bob the dinosaur smuggle drugs across the border.**

**Itachi: Flying hamsters of doom! It was them, then!**

**Soulthief2: Nope, they were busy dropping coconuts on unsuspecting tourists in Guam.**

**Itachi: I wasn't in my right mind! They ate my pocky!**

**Soulthief2: Now see, now you're just making stuff up. Go away Itachi, I have a story to write. Why don't you go brood like your emo brother?**

**Itachi: I don't brood! I simply think really, really, hard and it makes me look serious!**

**Soulthief2: right…..**

Naruto stared at Jiraiya incredulously. "You want me to what?" The white-haired pervert simply looked at his student, before saying, "You need to come with me on a training trip. The Akatsuki are looking for you actively now, and they won't hesitate to hurt you and those you love. If we move away from konoha, they'll be focused on you, and not the village."

Naruto turned his head to stare out the window. The sun was slowly beginning to set, filling the sky with hues of orange, red, and purple. Any other time, Naruto would have marveled at the beauty.

**He's right, kit. You have to do it. For the village. But he will not be the only one training you. Though, I must warn you that my training might have some undesirable effects.**

_Like what?_

**You know how the villagers used to call you a demon? In order to handle more of my power, you would have to become one, in essence. Tails, claws, ears, the whole shindig. All I have to do is burn out your chakra coils, and then replace them with demonic ones. In order to do that, I will dissolve some of your coils, and replace them with my own. Demonic chakra coils regenerate, so, by the time we're done, we'll both have demonic coils, and it's at that point that you'll start to earn your own tails. **

_I thought the number of tails depended on your age?_

**That's one way to get them, yes. Another is to train extensively. Myself, I did both. That's how I earned my position as Demon Lord. Speak with that pervert about it, I'm going to take a nap.**

Naruto exited his trance, and turned a serious look to Jiraiya. "What is it, brat? I don't like that look on your face." Naruto informed Jiraiya of what the Kyuubi had told him, and the sannin felt his legs tremble.

"It's one way to quickly gain more power, but not without it's costs. Damage to the chakra coils is extremely painful, and any mistakes made could cripple you for life."

"I know, but I would have to trust the skills of someone who's lived 10 millenia. I think it's worth doing, even if it makes what the villagers say about me true."

The super-pervert scowled, before bopping his student on the head. "Idiot. Even if you become a demon, you are not the same as Kyuubi. You're simply another demon, that has yet to make a name for itself. It's up to you to make that name, which, I assure you, will be much easier to do when we're out there without the prejudice of the village."

Naruto sighed before nodding. "Fine. When do we leave?" Jiraiya checked his watch quickly, before replying, "Tonight. We don't want to waste any time. Tsunade already knows about us leaving, she just doesn't know exactly when, but it's safer that no one knows."

Sad that he wouldn't be able to say goodbye to his friends, especially after they had accepted him, Naruto nonetheless steeled himself, and began packing.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?!" the silence of Konoha's morning was broken by Tsunade's shrill scream. Immediately, two ANBU entered the office, kunai in hand. Tsunade dismissed them with a wave of her hand, before turning back to the scroll in her hand.

_Hey Baa-chan,_

_I know this is sudden, but ero-sennin (itai!) said that akatsuki was coming after me, and that if I stayed in the village, it would be in danger. He's taking this opportunity to take me on a training trip, I don't know where, undoubtedly, he'll tell you with some sort of code or something. Anyways, I'm sorry for the quick departure, but I promise that when I get back, I'll be able to kick major butt. _

_Naruto_

_P.S. please find someone to make up for the lack of ramen I'll be eating at Ichiraku's, thanks._

Sighing, Tsunade threw the scroll on her desk, which she had sworn grown another two inches of paperwork. Groaning,, she formed two shadow clones to get to work on it, before she left her office to find a few certain genin.

"Ano sa, ero-sannin, where are we going first?" They were currently running through the forests of Fire Country, going north. "we're going to Wave, where you'll be training for a few months to a year. We'll be working on your chakra control and weapons techniques there, and I will be doing…RESEARCH!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, muttering "Baka ero-sannin."

Gradually, the landscape began to change, and the forests became more sparse. Like the last time Naruto had been in Wave country, there was a boat waiting at the dock, and they made the trip across quickly.

It seemed that the bridge had indeed made the country more prosperous. There were no homeless out on the street, and children were running happily throughout the city. Though Naruto didn't notice, Jiraiya saw the statue of Team 7, and grinned when he saw that Naruto was the centerpiece.

They ended up at Tazuna's house, who welcomed Naruto back exuberantly, before bonking Jiraiya over the head with his sake bottle when the lech began to drool over his daughter.

Tsunade looked sorrowfully at the assembled shinobi in front of her. "Naruto has left the village." Instantly, the room erupted in a cacophony of shouts, exclamations, and questions. "Please… he left the village because a new threat has popped, one that has the potential to destroy the world. I assume most of you know about Naruto's condition?"

At their nods, Tsunade continued, "Well it seems that a certain group calle Akatsuki have their sights set on Naruto and others who have the same condition, then using those to destroy the world. He has gone with Jiraiya the Toad Sannin to train, and probably won't be back for a few years. He feels that this is his responsibility and so he must face it alone. However, if I am not mistaken, this is not the case?"

Lee jumped into the air, his eyes on fire, "Yosh! Naruto should not have to face this threat alone, his fires of youth are not enough! We must join our fires of youth with his, and then we shall be victorious!"

Tsunade scowled at the volume of lee's proclamation. "It's not as easy as that, Lee. The akatsuki are comprised of almost all s- to kage-class missing nin. Naruto will be pushing himself beyond his limits to get the strength needed to defeat them. I wouldn't be surprised if he even gave up some of his humanity."

Silence was prevalent in the room, as the other considered this possibility. Neji was the first one to speak. "It does not matter. If Uzumaki-san needs our help, then we shall give it to him, regardless of whether or not he wants it. To do this, we must become stronger."

Tsunade nodded, as she pulled several envelopes from her desk. "That's correct Neji, I'm glad you feel that way. I now have a mission for all of you. You are to train, day in, day out. You will receive the standard pay of chunin, and will be allowed to take promotion exams, but there will be no missions that will take away from your training. Is that understood?"

The shinobi nodded, as they took their respective envelopes and left the tower. Tsunade turned to look out her window, towards the setting sun, "Stay safe, Brat."

_Time skip 3 months_

Naruto panted, sweat dripping from his face as he stared balefully at the obscenely fresh Jiraiya. After thre months of training, Naruto could feel how much he had already improved, but was still nowhere near the sannin, a point that was constantly being pointed out to him every time the man beat him effortlessly.

"Take a break, brat, you've worked hard enough for today." The blonde nodded, before collapsing to the ground in a heap. The air between them was silent as Naruto studied the clouds. After a few minutes of peace, Naruto asked, "Ero-sennin, how long do you think it will be before I'm strong enough to defeat Akatsuki?"

He heard the man sigh, "a long time, gaki. The orgabization is comprised of s- and kage-class missing nins, so, to even have a chance against them, you'd have to work your ass off, and even then, the fights will most likely involve your friends."

"We don't have time to waste then. We need to get back to training." Jiraiya groaned as Naruto hopped back up on his feet. "Gaki, I gave you a chance to rest, take advantage of it."

"I can't." jiraiya turned to look at his apprentice. "I can't afford to, Jiraiya. If they reall are that strong, I don't want to run the risk of getting my friends hurt for something that they have no need to fight in. It's my burden, my responsibility, and it will be my fight. I can't ask anyone else to bear it with me."

Jiraiya stared at the boy. _Arashi, you would be proud. He's just like you._ "Fine then. Are you wearing weights?" Naruto shook his head in the negative. "okay. I know you know how to use the Hiraishin no Jutsu, but the form you know is still unrefined. When you use it, it tears up the ground behind you, which could be dangerous in a fight. You need to learn how to move at high speeds, and to do that, we'll have you train with weights, which will make you faster and stronger." Pulling out a scroll, Jiraiya unrolled it, before making a few handseals. A puff of smoke later, an ink bottle and brush were lying on the parchment.

"Alright, take your shirt off. I will be putting some gravity seals on you, that way, you'll be working your whole body, not just certain areas. Do you understand?"

Naruto shivered as the cool ink touched his bare skin. "Sort of. These seals are like fuzzy-eyebrow's weights, only everywhere on my body?" "Yes. Another difference with these is that you can put charka in them to make them heavier, which cuts down on the bulk you're carrying."

Jiraiya finished, resealed the brush and ink, and made a seal. Instantly, Naruto's body bowed over from the unexpected weight. Grimacing, naruto growled out, "More weight." Raising an eyebrow, Jiraiya looked questioningly at his student. "Ero-sennin, muscles get stronger by the constant tearing and healing. Think about it: With the Kyuubi's charka healing me, I will be able to adapt to heavier weights faster than other people."

Jiraiya blinked. He actually hadn't considered that, but, the idea made sense. "Fine. You asked for it." Making the ram seal, Jiraiya channeled again. This time, the atmosphere around Naruto warped, as the boy collaped to his knees, cracking the earth underneath him. "Much better, ero-sennin." With that, Naruto began to struggle to his feet.

Jiraiya simply stared at the boy. He had put about 250 pounds worth of Chakra in those weights, and yet the boy was managing to stand up. He truly was a terror.

Tenten growled as she glared at the sand kunoichi who had thrown off her mark with her fan. Temari grinned at the weapons mistress, "You were close that time, but not close enough. I know you're specialty is weapons, but you need to find something else to work with, too." The two of them sat across from each other deep in thought, before some caterwauling drove them from their ponderings.

"Wahhh! Ten-chan, I cut myself on some wire!" Konohamaru yelled out as he held the bloody appendage. Konohamaru, after Naruto had left, had turned to the blonde's friends to replace his surrogate brother, a task which they accepted, despite the trouble that seemed to plague the poor boy.

Tenten sighed, before pulling some bandages from her pouch and tending to the wound. Temari, on the other hand, was viewing the hand as if a muse had come and bonked her on the head with a bowling ball.

As a newly-repaired Konohamaru dashed off, Temari asked Tenten, "Hey, do you have any wire on you?" "Uh…yeah, about 40 feet worth. Why?"

"I got an idea."

20 minutes later found Tenten and Temari standing in front of a tree, tenten with gloves on her hand, the occasional glint being the only indication that there were wires hanging from the tips of the leather.

"Now, mold charka into the wires and fling them at that tree." Tenten did as she told.

Surprisingly, the wires were as responsive as charka strings, and wrappe around the tree. Giving a sharp tug on the wires, Tenten's eyes widened as the the trunk of the tree collapsed, all cut cleanly through., before narrowing maliciously.

Temari decided to interrupt whatever potentially homicidal thoughts the other kunoichi had, "Konohamaru gave me the idea. Not only does the chakra allow the wires to be super-sharp and maneuverable, but they also prevent the wires from being thrown off by any other chakra-based moves." (kudos to whoever can guess where I got this from.)

Tenten again channeled chakra through the wires, before flinging her arms out. Miniature starbursts filled the air as the wires reflected the sunlight, before several tress toppled.

Tsunade smirked as she saw the results in her crystal ball. It appeared that Naruto's friends had taken to her mission quite well. Sakura, Haku and Hinata were studying under her to be medi-nins, Neji had become quite proficient in the use of a sword, Kiba and Akamaru, who was now the size of a Scottish Deerhound, had increased the speed and strength of their Gatsuuga to the point where they could tunnel underground and attack any unsuspecting enemies, shredding them. Ino was working with her father, learning mind jutsu that would allow her to either kill her opponents or turn them into puppets for her to use. Shino was also working with his father, increasing the speed and efficiency with which his insects could suck chakra, as well as gathering numerous other types of insects. Apparently the boy was a bit of a pyromaniac, as one of his favorite new insects was a fast-breeding variety that would latch onto their opponent, then use their opponents chakra to explode. Once you got a hundred of those on you, it was fairly certain you would die.

Chouji had been gaining weight, but then streamlining that extra fat into solid muscle underneath. Sasuke was working with Kakashi, to increase his speed and stamina, as well as learning the Raikiri. Grinning, she sat back in her chair, going back to reading the _Shinobi Handbook_.

_There are those in the world who will tell you that their reason for fighting is revenge, grief, or even, unfortunately, for the fun of it. I tell you now, if you are one of those people, put this book down, for I have nothing to teach you. A shinobi fights, not for the mission, or his village, but for his precious people, the people he cares about. A true shinobi would lay his life down to protect his precious people, for they are the ones that keep him sane in a world filled with lies, treachery, and death. _

_I met my first precious people on my very first c-ranked mission. I met a girl who was willing to die for a man who had save her from the hell of loneliness and starvation, a pain I knew all too well. The man thought her a weapon at first, but gradually, over time, came to regard her as a precious person, too. My mission was to protect someone who they were told to kill. I refused to let them do it, but I also refused to kill them, or let themselves be killed, so I destroyed the man that had hired them, an evil man, with no regards towards the emotions and thoughts of others. Unfortunately, before I destroyed the man, he had me tortured for weeks. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of how sad my new precious people would be if I decided to give up and die. So I kept going, despite the daily agony I faced. _

_This is what having people precious to you does. It gives you the strength to go on, to persevere in the face of adversity, to never give up, because to do so would mean your own destruction, but more importantly, the destruction of all you hold dear to you. _

_Timeskip (1 ½ years after first timeskip)_

Naruto eyed his target critically from afar. The boy had changed a great deal over the time he had been away from Konoha. His already sharp mind was now like a razor, able to analyze a situation and execute a viable plan within seconds in a battle. His muscles, once simply toned, were now cut and chiseled. His hair was longer, hanging down to just under his ears. His face had lost all traces of baby fat, giving it a more feral appearance, and his canines now extended somewhat past his closed lips.

His clothed had changed as well. He now wore a black leather jacket that went to his waist, Kitsune no Giri strapped to the back. Under that, he had a dark red skintight t-shirt with the sleeves removed. He now wore his knuckle gloves constantly, the tips stained red from blood. Black baggy pants were belted at his waist, tucked into the tops of steel-toed shoes, the ends wrapped in black bandages. He now had two kunai holsters, one on each leg, and his kama holsters at the small of his back.

Drawing a kunai, he readied himself, before disappearing in a dark flash. He reappeared next to his target, kunai sticking out of the nin's chest. The nin just stared in shock, before collapsing to the ground dead. Retrieving his kuani and wiping the blood from the blade on the nin's clothing, Naruto straightened to look at his sensei.

Jiraiya was nodding. "Well done. Hiraishin with no seals, from an elevated position. I'd say that skill is mastered now." Naruto nodded before cutting the head off of the nin and bagging it. "this one was too easy. Tell Baa-chan to start giving us harder ones." Jiraiya took the bloody offering and summoned Gamachiki, who went on his way to take the package back to Konoha.

"Naruto, there aren't too many s-rank missions out there. Already, Tsunade's beginning to complain about how you're taking away all of the missions for ANBU."

"Well, could we get some from Gaara? I know the Suna village doesn't have a whole lot of nins, so maybe they could use the extra manpower?" "You'd have to get permission from both Tsunade and Gaara for that."

Naruto scoffed, "That'll be easy, Tsunade can't resist my puppy eyes no jutsu. Designed specifically for her, you know."

The two made their way back to camp, jumping swiftly from tree to tree. "Well, brat, that's about all I can teach you right now. I assume Kyuubi is going to take over your training now?"

"Yeah, but first, he's going to have to turn me. I'm strong enough now to keep from dying during the process." Jiraiya looked at him worriedly, almost running into a tree.

Later that night, the two of them prepared to part ways. Jiraiya figured that since there was no longer anything he could teach Naruto, he would try and find some more information on the Akatsuki. Naruto hugged the lech with one arm, "Thanks, oji-san. For everything."The white-haired sannin nodded, before releasing the hug and dashing off.

_I hope you make it through this, Naruto._

Sitting down on the forest floor, Naruto concentrated and soon found himself in front of the cage. The Kyuubi was there, waiting expectantly. **"Are you ready?"**

Naruto sighed, "As ready as one can be when they're about to have their coils ripped apart." Kyuubi chuckled mercilessly, **"Good point. I were in your place, I wouldn't do it, but then, I've never really had someone to care for, so I have no idea what it's like." _Until now…_**

"No point in discussing it now. Just get it over with." A loud growling filled the air as Kyuubi launched forward, biting Naruto on his left shoulder. Crying out in pain, Naruto stared at the wound. Instead of blood, the wound leaked a brilliant white-blue chakra, his chakra. Immediately after, pain racked his body, moreso than any he had ever known before, even when he had been tortured. He could feel something in him dissolve, and his power disappear. Then red chakra leaked from the fox's mouth into the wound, and he could feel the regrowth of the missing coils, but these were far stronger, thicker and more numerous than a humans'. Soon, the coils began to produce their own chakra, which swept over his old chakra, warping and changing it. But his chakra, pure and untainted, could not be fully corrupted, and began to purify the demonic chakra. But the demonic chakra was too evil to be fully purified. What resulted was the creation of a new chakra.

Violet tendrils spilled forth from the wound in his shoulder, wrapping around the edges of his skin, knitting it back together just as Kyuubi removed his maw. Within barely a second, the wond was healed, and Naruto flexed his arm.

"What was that, why was my chakra purple?" Kyuubi sat down on its haunches, staring at Naruto quizzically. **"My assumption would have to be that you were too pure to be fully tainted by my, now your, chakra. However, your chakra could not fully contain the evil, and so was changed into that purple variety you just saw. Congratulations, I think we just invented a bloodline."**

Naruto couldn't respond as another spasm of pain hit him. Another of his coils had been demolished, and replaced. "**That will be happening for at least a week. During this time, you cannot use any chakra maneuvers, because if you do, the unstable mixture, which is already at a volatile point, will spark causing you to explode. No amount of demonic chakra would be able to revive you from that."**

Naruto nodded, before leaving the mindscape. Returning to his normal vision, he was shocked to see that his camp area had been decimated. Wondering how it happened, he jumped in fright when another spasm of pain attacked, and a blue shockwave of chakra left his body, tearing up anything in its path. Raising an eyebrow at this, Naruto simply sat there and did nothing as pain kept filling him.

Tenten watched impassively at the sound shinobi before her. They couldn't see her face, of course, due to her mask, but that didn't really matter. They would be dead soon. Channeling chakra, she threw her arms forward, and began to dance an intricate dance, twisting and turning, spinning and ducking. She danced a dance of death.

Body parts flew everywhere, blood spouting from stumps and sockets. The nins didn't even have a chance.

Tenten release dthe chakra flowing through the wires, before pulling her gloves off. Stuffing them into her pocket, she turned to acknowledge the kunoichi who had dropped down beside her. "You didn't leave any for me, Tenten!" the weapons mistress smirked, 'Ture, but I needed the exercise. Besides, you got the ones in grass country, remember?"

Ino pouted, "Please, there were only 3 of them. Hardly a strain." Ino and Tenten had changed quite a bit over the almost 2 year absence of Naruto. Tenten had mastered her use of the chakra wires, which, when she showed to Tsunade, had been classified as an a-class weapon for the pure power it had to massacre several nin in less than 30 seconds. Tenten wore black baggy pants, with white bandages wrapped around the bottom where they tucked into her sandals. Her top was a vest of ninja mesh, under a black version of her old Chinese-style shirt. The mask she had been wearing was painted in the design of a shinigami, with the insane crimson grin and demon horns. For aesthetics, Tenten would even sometimes paint the area around her eyes black, so that it would appear her eyes were simply black pits.

Ino had become frightening in her use of her puppet master techniques, and was able to control up to 5 opponents at once. (A/N this is different than the shintenshin no jutsu. She simply inflicts her will on them, she doesn't actually enter their bodies) She was wearing a black battle skirt, with shorts on underneath, her kunai holster strapped to her exposed right thigh. She now wore combat boots, much like Sakura, only without the armor. Her top was a white t-shirt with a black jacket, concealing two wakizashis behind her back.

She grinned as Tenten rolled her eyes in response. The two of them had become friends after Naruto had gone on his training trip, though born of necessity, as neither would allow the other free reign towards Naruto. Still, they respected each other, and had vowed to 'play fair' when they again saw their blonde hero.

Konoha had been much too quiet without Naruto, and there was a marked change in everyone. There was a lot less chatter and laughter among the populace, as the realities of war set in. granted, the tide of the war was well in Konoha's favor, since Orochimaru's arms had been disabled. However, that did little to alleviate the fears all people had when faced with possible death.

The shinobi were better about it, since they faced life-and-death situations on an almost daily basis, but even their little 'quirks' were beginning to fail them. They needed something, someone, to bring back their lives. Konoha was stagnant, an automaton. It moved, it breathed, it lived, but it had no soul, no vibrancy to its life.

That was soon to change, however.

(_timeskip, 9 months)_

The blonde stared from the top of a tree at the village. "Doesn't look like much has changed, huh, Ero-sennin?" a blur leapt up from the ground and landed next to the teenager. "you've gotten better, you knew I was here." Naruto grinned, showing his canines, "I knew you were in the vicinity about a mile back, Ero-sennin. I could hear you."

Jiraiya chuckled, "With those senses, you would be a great asset to my 'research', but alas, I must be the last of the great perverts." "Nah, Ero-sennin, you could always tutor Kakashi to carry on your ignoble and immoral work."

There was silence between them for a moment, before Jiraiya asked, "Can I see them?" Naruto grinned, before shifting slightly. Suddenly, his jacket began to writhe and twist around his waist, before 9 golden tails popped out from underneath. "So the rumors of a 9-tailed human were true. You know, you've made quite the name for yourself among the other villages. I also hear Iwa nins are out for the blood of the Yondaime's legacy."

Naruto snorted, "Iwa can go screw themselves. I'm not my father, and to attack me out of revenge is just the sort of idiocy to be expected from rock-for-brain Iwa nins."

Again, there was silence. The two sat together, simply watching the village hustling and bustling about. Only Naruto was able to discern what was actually happening in the village, with his demon senses. He sniffed the air, before smiling and jumping down from the tree, Jiraiya barely a second behind him.

They approached the gates, which was guarded by two nervous-looking chuunin. "H-halt! State your village and intentions!" Naruto cursed, before digging into his pocket, causing the already nervous guards to tense up. They relaxed, though, when he pulled a hitai-ate from his pocket and tied it to his arm. "Uzumaki Naruto and Ero-sennin returning from training trip!"

The chunin guards blinked, before asking, "Okay, but where's your passport?" Naruto looked expectantly at Jiraiya, who was busy searching his person for the papers. "I know I put it somewhere important, but _where_… I know!" reaching into a hidden pocket within his clothes, he drew out his notebook and opened it. Indeed, there were two passports within it. Naruto sweatdropped at the way his sensei thought, but knew there was nothing he could do against it.

They entered the village, taking in all the sights, smells, and sounds. Naruto chuckled when he noticed Tsunade's mug on the hokage mountain. "oi, brat, we should probably go report now. Tsunade will have my hide if she finds out we've been back for a while and haven't informed her." "Hai, hai, we might as well go see the old hag. Bet you 10 ryo she's sleeping." Knowing naruto's luck, Jiraiya wisely refused the bet, much to the blonde's displeasure.

Indeed, when they entered the office, Tsunade was asleep, drool pooling on an agriculture production report from Wave. Sighing, naruto made a shadow clone, and used it to wake her up, "Oi, Baa-chan! Wake up!"

The clone disappeared ina puff of smoke thanks to Tsunade's mighty 'wake-up punch'. Yawning, the blonde woman rubbed her eyes before taking in the sight before her. Jiraiya was off at the window peering through it with his telescope, so Tsunade missed him, but she did see the blonde in front of her, hands in his pockets, with a huge sword across his back and nine golden fox tails swaying behind him.

Now, there were two people Tsunade associated with large swords (Don't forget Zabuza), three with blonde hair, but there was only one she associated with nine tails.

"Naruto?" The blonde grinned and nodded, "Hai, Baa-chan. I'm back." The woman forgot her brief irritation at the nickname before asking, "What happened, why do you have tails?" The teenager looked down, which did little to alleviate Tsunade's fears.

"I… had to make a deal with the Kyuubi, in order to get the kind of power that would allow me to take on the Akatsuki alone. He replaced my chakra coils with demonic ones, and from there, I began to get my own tails. Though, I'm not quite a real demon, more like a half-demon, due to my old chakra mixing with the Kyuubi's."

Tsunade sat back in her chair heavily, shocked. "Is the fox under control?" Naruto nodded, "Hai, he's still behind the seal. It was just his sense of self-preservation that made him do what he did."

Shaking her head in incredulation, Tsunade got out of her seat and went to naruto, hugging him. "I'm glad you're back, Naruto. Now, I'm sure there are some other people who would like to see you, so go on ahead. Also, don't forget to pick up the money for those missions you did, okay?"

Grinning and nodding, Naruto disappeared in a flash of black. Tsunade watched where he had stood, before going to a safe in the wall and extracting her secret stash of sake. She had been keeping for when the brat had returned, and now, she had a feeling that she would need it even more now.

Naruto wandered through the streets of Konoha, ignoring the stares he received. Of course, these stares were simply because people didn't recognize that he was the same jinchuuriki who had left almost three years ago, but it was simply reflex to ignore it whenever someone was staring at him.

Searching for half an hour, he had not managed to find any of the Rookie nine or team Gai in the village, so he made his way towards the training fields. Indeed, as his estimations proved, they were there. They looked to be having a meeting, so he decided to sneak up on them and eavesdrop. With that, he disappeared in another flash of black.

He reappeared in the branches of a tree above the group. Making a single seal, he stayed silent as his clothes and skin changed color to match that of his surroundings. When that was done, he simply focused his super-sharp hearing towards the group.

"So, when do you think Naruto will come back?" Neji asked, as he sharpened a kunai. Sakura stared up at the sky as she answered, "Tsunade-sensei said that he'd be back in about three years. It's been that long, so, theoretically, he should be here any day now, but we haven't heard any word from him."

Tenten looked downcast at this, the sad look on her face making himshift guiltily. Unfortunately, in doing so, he had brushed up against a branch, rustling it. Instantly, he found his spot to be the object of everybody's eyes.

Immediately, Tenten pulle don her gloves and launched her wires at the tree, shedding the area where Naruto was. He reacted instantly when he saw her pull the gloves on, and, fearing the worst, broke off his jutsu and leaped from the tree in a blur of black.

As he began to circle around to greet them, he was confronted by Lee, who hit him with a roundhouse kick to the neck. Naruto took the blow, his neck slightly bowing being the only indication to the strength of the attack. In retaliation, he shrugged off the leg, grabbed Lee's head, and slammed his knee into the boy's chest. Lee wheezed out his breath, before falling to the ground, unconscious.

Not forgetting the others, Naruto spun, barely managing to avoid being hit by neji and Hinata. Flashing again, he appeared behind them. He twisted their arms behind their backs and tied them with ninja wire, incapacitating them.

Then Temari came, blowing her Kamaitaichi at him. Naruto let it hit, ignoring the stinging cuts, before flashing and punching her in the stomach. Again, another was knocked out. He prepared to flash again and take out Kiba and his over-sized Akamaru, but his footing was interrupted by an eruption of earth. Stumbling a bit, he turned to see Sakura with her fighting gloves on, and Haku holding a few Senbon. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Haku launched her senbon. Naruto caught one, and used it to deflect the others, byt had to roll out of the way when Kiba came spinning out from under the ground. Leaping and flipping backwards, Naruto studied the situation on front of him. If he tried to flash, Sakura would pound the ground, knocking him off balance, Haku could use her ice senbon to finish him off. Kiba had an attack that could drill into the earth and hit him if he wasn't paying attention, Sasuke hadn't attacked yet, merely content with looking at him with a weird look. Tenten was twitching her fingers, causing the wires on her gloves to cut furrows in the ground as she advanced on her enemy. Naruto made care not to look Ino in the eye, though, who knew what new tricks she had picked up. Sighing at the ending of his fun. He drew Kitsune no giri from his back, making a point to show them the engraving on the blade.

The others froze. There was only one person who had that blade, but he had yet to… "Dammit Naruto!" the blonde chuckled as they finally caught on. "Took you long enough. You know, there aren't that many blondes around here. You should learn to analyze an opponent before you engage him."

Sakura groaned, causing Naruto to chuckle. His mirth was cut off, though, when he suddenly found himself wrapped in wire. "Uh, Tenten, I know that what I just did probably pissed you off, but is that any reason to ki…oomf!" his attempt to save his life was interrupted when the kunoichi grabbed him and kissed him fully on the mouth.

"Welcome back, Naruto-kun."

**Finally done! Ugh, this took me three days to do, giving up my free period, lunch, and avoiding real work in 7th period, as well as the occasional bit at home, to get this done. But it's finished! No, not the story, the chapter. I'm so tired. I have a swim meet at home, a crapload of homework for springbreak next week, and I'm probably going to get grounded because I'm failing AP world History. Possibly the only good news is that I might be able to make up my grade in World history a bit if I turn in some stuff I'm missing, even though I only get half credit. At least they won't be zeroes, anymore. **


	11. Chapter 11

The left Hand of Kami

Chapter 11

**Guess what? I'm alive! Now, undoubtedly, quite a few of you are pissed at me because I haven't updated in months, but I apologise. I am now in the third month of my senior year, and, me being the glutton for intellectual pain that I am, decided to take a full load of classes, even though i only had to take 5 at the most. My classes are as follows:**

**AP US History**

**Blue (Show choir ensemble)**

**Chemistry**

**Precalculus / Calc A**

**Concert Choir**

**Accounting**

**AP English Literature**

**Freight (choir ensemble)**

**DECA (Technical sales)**

**Cross Country (Runin' Rebels)**

**Itachi: You're simply making excuses. You've been sitting on your ass reading fanfics.**

**soulthief2: I have not! at least, not the entire time. I was trying to work on an original story, but I was having trouble with the beginning. I've got the middle and ending all worked out, but I am never satisfied with the hook.**

**Itachi: Maybe you're like F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was never truly satisfied with his work, he had dozens of drafts for a single story.**

**soulthief2: Yeah, well, the urge to work on it only hits me at certain times, like after I had seen Stardust. That movie gave me some great ideas.**

**Itachi: So you've been watching movies instead of writing!**

**soulthief2: Itachi, what are your views on children?**

**Itachi: Well, "id certainly like to have some someday. I'd name them after my favorite pocky flavors...**

**soulthief2: If you don't keep your gaping pie hole shut, I'm going to permanently remove any chance of you being able to procreate. Is that understood?**

**Itachi: Yes master...**

**soulthief2: Better. now, onto the story.**

**Disclaimer: Kishimoto-san has said that my offer, while incredibly generous, is not quite worth granting me ownership over naruto. So, all you lawyers peeking through the window at me can go away, before I grab my shotgun and start unloadin some good 'ol old west justice on your pale, vermin-like carcasses.**

Naruto was not startled to learn that the Leaf/Sound war was still going on when he'd returned. He'd heard about it during his travels, and even had some missions where he was helping leaf-nins in their capturing of an enemy base, though he wasn't allowed to disclose his identity to any of them.

He was, however, shocked to note that nearly all of the Rookie 9had been promoted to chuunin, with Shikamaru and Neji reaching Jounin status. That was why, after having a few days rest, he found himself in the Hokage's tower facing a madly twitching Tsunade.

"Naruto, technically, you should have been made a chuunin after the Sound invasion, but our records were so screwed up around that time that we had no idea you actually deserved the vest until you had already left for your training mission. Here..."

She tossed him the signature green vest of the chuunin. "If you want, the jounin trials will be held here in a few months, and, as a chuunin, you don't need a team to participate in them. However, in the meantime, you'll be doing missions, mainly against the sound village. Judging by the skills you said you have, I'm putting you with a heavy assault team. Yur teammates are Tenten and Kiba, with Gai as your sensei. Take this." She handed him a scroll with the kanji for "A" on it. "That's your team's first mission. It's time sensitive, so make sure you hurry and complete it." Naruto nodded before leaving the tower.

On his way to the training grounds, he stopped by his apartment to change. Throwing his dirty clothes on the floor, he pulled on the standard jounin outfit, with his chuunin vest unfastened over that. Wrapping the bottom of his pants, he tucked them into the tops of his combat boots. grabbing his hitai-ate, he wrapped it around his upper right bicep, pulled on his custom gloves, and walked out his door, twirling Kitsune no giri twice before sheathing it.

five minutes later found him at the training grounds, where Gai and the rest of his team were staring at a map. "Gai-sensei!" The jumpsuit-clad man looked up as Naruto called him. "Ah! Naruto-kun, what brings you here?" Naruto dug the mission scroll from his pocket and tossed it to the jounin. "Tsunade-baa chan is having me join your assault team. This is our first mission, and it's time-sensitive."

Tenten sidled up to Naruto as gai read the mission. "Hey there." She purred. Naruto smiled, giving her a small hug and a quick kiss to the top of her head. "How you doing? I haven't seen you for a few days." tenten sighed. "I know. Gai-sensei has been working us a little hard these past few days, considering we're an assault team. He wants our strength and stamina to be superior to any other team's out there." Naruto chuckled.

"That's a pretty lofty goal, considering Lee's not on this team. Speaking of which, what kind of team is he on? I would have thought with his strength, he'd be on assault." Tenten shook her head. "He's working with Hinata and Shikamaru on what Lady Hokage refers to as 'aggressive reconaisance'. Basically, they scout for enemy movements and such, and, if its within their abilities, they destroy it. Hinata, with her bloodline, is good for recon, while Shikamaru can eliminate single targets quickly and effectively, and Lee can handle multiple opponents."

Naruto nodded, before turning his attention to Gai, who had closed up the mission scroll. "Alright my most youthful team, we have an a-ranked mission. Intelligence reports have come in about a new sound outpost near our borders. It is manned mainly by genin, with one or two chunin. Our mission is to destroy it, totally."

Naruto nodded, his face impassive. He had numerous missins like these during his training. Of course, he had progressed beyond them in ability, but sometimes it was nice getting a mission that didn't at least sound as if you had a better chance of dieing than not.

Kiba snorted. it didn't sound too hard. After all, he was probably tied for being the second strongest of the Rookie 9, Lee and him sharing an interesting rivalry. Naruto was, of course the strongest, a fact which never ceased to amuse him considering his former place as dead-last.

The four of them headed out quickly, setting a pace many would find brutal. Konoha was maybe 10 miles from the border they were headed to, so, it would take them a good hour to reach their objective. Naruto could have reached the target instantly, using Hiraishin, but he knew the reasons for teammates, and held back, despite the overwhlming desire to get it done as quickly as possible. It wa dangerous to think that way when you were a shinobi. Rushing things led to overlooking things, or making mistakes, both of which got people killed.

They ran in relative silence, the only sound being the wind that rushed through their ears, and the occasional rustle of leaves. quickly enough, though, they reached their destination.

Apparently the sound didn't care much for the quality of their forward outposts. The compound was little more than a camp with a perimeter wall of spiked fending. Naruto narrowed his eyes, pupils dilating to slits as his vision telescoped to scan the area. "I count 24 sound genin, 8 chunin, and two jounin. However, one jounin appears to be turning in to sleep. Most likely they have watch rotations." He paused for a few seconds before continuing, "yeah, they're on rotations. four of the chuunin and half of the genin just went to their respective tents. The perimeter is being monitored by the genin, while the upper-level shinobi are staying more towards the center. If we move quickly, we might be able to get into those tents and kill those guys in their sleep."

Gai nodded at the plan. "Tenten, you handle the genin tent, Kiba, you take the chunin. Naruto, you have the Jounin tent. Send out a chakra pulse when your task is done, then meet in the center of the camp to finish off the rest. I'll join you when I feel the pulses. Now, move!"

Naruto grinned. Doing a quick series of handseals, he fell through the ground like it was water, reappearing inside the camp just outside of the jounin tent. Looking to his left and right, he confirmed that both Kiba and Tenten were at their objectives, before cutting a hole through the material of the tent and entering it. He froze when he did.

The jounin wasn't asleep, though he was unarmed. All the same, naruto would have preferred to just simply have cut his throat while the man was sleeping. Now he was going to have to make sure the man didn't make any noise.

Silently, he creeped up behind the jounin, rubber soled boots completely noiseless in the dirt of the tent floor. He stopped when he was at the Jounin's back. Taking a slow, measured breath, he darted his left hand out, gripping the jounin's windpipe and squeezing tightly. The man wheezed, but it wasn't nearly loud enough to cay outside the tent. Setting his jaw, naruto increased the pressure he was exerting, until the sound of crunching cartilage filled the tent. The nin sagged, but still seemed to be alive. Frowning, Naruto drew a kunai, before stabbing it into the nin's head at the base of the skull. This time the nin was truly dead.

Gently lowering the body to the ground, Naruto let out a faint pulse of chakra as he divested the corpse of any weapons and items of monetary or strategic value. He was almost done when he felt two other chakra pulses. Grinning, he left the tent and charged the center of the outpost.

The sound nins didn't know what hit them. Naruto was there first, carving two genin in half with one cut, and caving the skullin of another with a booted heel. A flash of silver flew past him, and three more nins were eviscerated, as the now-crimson wires returned to Tenten. The four chunin were crushed all together when Kiba's Gatsuuga hit them dead on. Finally, Gai arrived, legs wrapped around the neck of the jounin, before he twisted and flipped, snapping the nin's neck.

Gai flashed them all a huge smile. "Well done, my youthful team! Now, let us demolish these fortifications, and we shall be on our way!" A quick katon jutsu later, and the entire outpost was in flames, the light illuminating the four figures that made their way back to Konoha.

Tsunade grinned at the mission report. "Excellent work, everyone. No doubt those losses put at least a dent in Orochimaru's forward forces. You have one day's leave before recieving your next mission. Dismissed."

Tenten and Naruto headed home together. The sun had begun to set in Konoha, turning the sky into a beautiful montage of oranges, purples, and pinks. Tenten sighed, as she put her head wearily on her boyfriend's shoulder. She had yet to inform naruto of the bet she had made with Ino, over who got got to be with him, and, truth be told, she was nervous as to what his reaction might be. Granted, most men would be thrilled to be dating two of konoha's most beautiful Kunoichi, but Naruto was not like most men.

She shook herself mentally. Those were thoughts for another time. Right now, she just wanted to focus on how nice it felt to be laying her head on Naruto's shoulder, and how good he smelled, the faint smell of metal, mixed with a tiny bit of sweat. She loved it. Not to mention, she was extremely tired, and wanted to rest her eyes for a bit...

Naruto sighed as Tenten practically collapsed on him, falling asleep as she walked. Shaking his head, he picked her up gently and made his way to his apartment, jumping through an open window that had a genjutsu on it so that it appeared to be closed. Carefully, he laid his girlfriend on his bed, and was turning to make his way to his couch, seeing as he was tired as well, but was foiled when a pair of thin arms wrapped around his waist. Looking back, he saw a still-sleeping Tenten, clutching him firmly like a giant teddy bear.

Shaking his head, he carefully removed his jacket so as to not wake her up, as well as his gloves and boots, leaving him in his pants and a black muscle shirt. Praying that he wouldn't get smacked for this later, he gently slid in next to Tenten. Closing his eyes, he smiled as his super-charged nose caught her scent: a bit of jasmine, along with some other flower he couldn't identify. As he lay there, she moved her arms from his waist up to his chest, pulling him in tightly against her. He tried valiantly to ignore the soft cushions he could feel pressing against his back.

"mmm...Ashiteru Naruto." She rested her head in the crook of his shoulder, subconsciously trying to hold him to her, so that he might never disappear again. That had been her worst nightmare, when naruto had been gone on his training trip. The nightmares would always start off pleasant, but then, naruto would always have to leave, either by summons, or just plain going shopping. But, he never showed up again. Two of her worst nightmares were where she waited by the window for him, slowly withering away to nothing, and that he disappeared in the morning for a mission, but never came back.

"Don't...leave... Naruto-kun." Naruto smiled softly, resting his chin on Tenten's head. "I won't Tenten. I promise. Ashiteru."

**I know its shorter than you're used to, but I was trying to get back in the groove. Anyways, i have no idea when the next chapter will be out, as everything is really chaotic right now, but i can tell you it won't take months to update again.**


End file.
